TYPES OF VARIABLES

ACCORDING TO NATURE
August 2023
What is a variable?
A variable is any factor or property that a researcher
measures, controls, and/or manipulates.
It is also the changing quantity or measure of any
factor, trait, or condition that can exist in differing
amounts or types.
It is also a logical set of attributes, characteristics,
numbers, or quantities that can be measured or
counted
It is also called a data item.
1) Numeric Variables
These are variables with values that describe a
measurable numerical quantity and answer the
questions “how many” or “how much”

These values are considered as quantitative

data.
 Continuous
Numeric
Variables
Discrete
Continuous Variables
These variables may assume any value
between a certain set of real numbers.
The values depend on the scale used.
Continuous variables are also called interval
variables.
Examples include time, age, temperature,
height, and weight.
Discrete Variables
These variables can only assume any whole value
within the limits of the given variables.
Examples include
the number of registered cars,
number of business locations,
number of children in the family,
population, and number of family members.
2) Categorical Variables
These are variables with values that describe a
quality or characteristic of a data unit like “what
type” or “which category”
 Categorical
Variables

Ordinal Nominal Dichotomous Polychotomous

Ordinal Variables
These variables can take a value which can be
logically ordered or ranked.
Examples include
academic grades such as A, B, C;
clothing size such as X, L, M, S; and
measures of attitudes in Likert Scale:
strongly agree, agree, disagree, strongly
disagree
Nominal Variables
These are variables whose values cannot be
organized in a logical sequence
Examples include
business types;
eye colors; and
kinds of religion
various languages, and types of learners
Dichotomous Variables
These variables represent only two categories

Examples include
sex (male and female)
answer (yes or no)
veracity (true or false)
Polychotomous Variables
These are variables that have many categories

Examples include
educational attainment (elementary, high
school, college, graduate, and
postgraduate)
level of performance (excellent, very good,
good, satisfactory or poor)
3) Experimental Variables
These are variables being taken unto
consideration in an experiment to detect either
mutual relationship, conditional relations, and
or non relations exist between the two or more.
 Independent

Experimental
Dependent
Variables

Extraneous
Independent Variables
These variables are usually manipulated in an
experiment.

It is also called manipulated or explanatory

variable.
Dependent Variables
These variables are usually affected by the
manipulation of the independent variables

They are also called response or predicted

variable.
Extraneous Variables
These variables are already existing during the
conduct of an experiment and could influence
the result of the study.

They are also called mediating or intervening

variable.
Use of Gardening Tools and Types of Fertilizer:
Their Effects on the Amount of Harvest
• Independent Variable:
Use of gardening tools, types of fertilizer
• Dependent Variable:
Amount of harvest
• Extraneous Variable:
Humidity level, types of seeds/plants
Level of Communicative Competence of
BSED- Science Students in XYZ university
• Independent Variable:
communicative competence
• Dependent Variable:
understanding of linguistic lessons
• Extraneous Variable:
skills, place, and conduct of tests or
observations
Reference:

• Cristobal, A.P.C. & Cristobal, M.C.D. (2017).

Practical Research 2. C&E Publishing, Inc.:
Quezon City.