Data types and Data collection

Data (singular-Datum): Data are considered as the

raw materials of statistics. Actually data are the crude
information from which it is collected. Data are numerical
measurement (expression) that are collected in a
scientific/systematic way and are related to the
predetermined objectives. Data constitute the formation of
statistical analysis & interpretation.

……..Statistical data is known to be crude information and not

knowledge itself. The sequence from data to knowledge is:
from data to information, from information to facts, and
finally, from facts to knowledge. Data becomes
information, when it becomes relevant to our decision
problem. Information becomes fact, when the data can
support it. Facts are what the date reveals.

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 Data Types:
Data can be classified into different ways such as based on its
source, quality, state and others. Information can be
collected in statistics using Qualitative or Quantitative data.
Qualitative data such as eye colour of a group of individual, sex,
education, religion etc are not computable by arithmetic relations. They
are labels that advised us in which category or class an individual,
object, or process fall. They are called categorical variables (Attribute).

Quantitative data sets consist of measures that take numerical

values for which descriptions such as mean (x), S. D. are
meaningful. They can be put into an order and further
divided into two groups (Discrete & Continuous data).
a) Discrete (Discontinuous) data are countable data and
collected by counting, for example- the number of defective
items produced during a day’s production.
b) Continuous data are collected by measuring and are expressed on a
continuous scale, e.g. age, income, birth rate.
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 Data Types:
Among the first activities in statistical analysis is to
count or measure: counting/measuring theory is
concerned with the connection between data &
reality.
A set of data is a representation (i.e. a model) of the
reality based on numerical and measurable scales.
Data are collected primary type-if the analyst has been
involved in collecting the data relevant to his/her
investigation.
Otherwise, it is called secondary type data.
Internal data refer to the measurements that are the by
product of routine business record keeping like
accounting, finance, production, personnel, quality
control, sales etc of an organization.
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 Data collection

Contact Methods for colleting the primary data

Contact methods are used to obtain the information

direct from the consumer. Contact methods can
be listed as:
1. Mail questionnaires--used to collect large
amounts of information at a low cost.
2. Telephone interviewing--good method for
collecting information quickly.
3. Personal interviewing (which can be either
individual or group interviewing).

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 Contact Methods for colleting the primary data

A form of personal interviewing is “focus group interviewing”.

Focus-group interviewing consists of inviting six to ten
people to gather for a few hours with a trained
interviewer to talk about a product, service, or
organization. The interviewer “focuses” the group
discussion on important issues.
4. Online (Internet) marketing research can consist of
Internet surveys or online focus groups.
Many experts predict that online research will soon be
the primary tool of marketing researchers.
5. Computer interviewing is a new method being used in
the technology age. Consumers read questions from a
computer screen and respond.

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 Sampling plans are used to outline how
samples will be constructed and used.
1. A sample is a segment of the population selected for marketing
research to represent the population as a whole.
2. Marketing researchers usually draw conclusions about large groups
of consumers by studying a small sample of the total consumer
population.
3. Designing a sample calls for three decisions:
a. Who is to be surveyed (what sampling unit)?
b. How many people should be surveyed (what sample size)?
c. How should the sample be chosen (what sampling
procedure)?
4. Kinds of samples include:
a. Probability samples--each population member has a known
chance of being included in the sample, and researchers can
calculate confidence limits for sampling error.

b. Non-probability samples--sampling error cannot be measured.

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In collecting primary data, marketing
researchers have a choice of two main
research instruments—the questionnaire
and mechanical devices.
Questionnaire: The questionnaire is by far
the most common instrument, whether
administered in person, by phone, or
online. Questionnaires are very flexible—
there are many ways to ask questions.
However, they must be developed
carefully and tested before they can be
used on a large scale. A carelessly
prepared questionnaire usually contains
several errors.
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 Data Presentation/Organization
Table & Charts (Graphs)
Data Types Presentation Type
Frequency Table
Relative Frequency Table
Qualitative Data
Bar Chart
Pie Chart
Frequency Distributions
Relative Frequency Distributions
Quantitative Data Histograms
Frequency Polygons
The Cumulative Frequency & Ogive8
 Data Presentation/Organization
Frequency Table
Title (Sub-title)
Explanatory Note
Caption
Stub Column Head Column Head
Head Sub- Sub- Sub- Sub-
Column Column Column Column
Head Head Head Head
Row/ 12 15 11 143
Stub
Entries 9
 Data Presentation (Graph)
The following data present the number of gallons of water used per day
for a 4_unit building in Dhaka. a) Using 100 as the width, set up a
frequency distribution for these data. b) Construct a Histogram.
c) Make a frequency Polygon. d) Ogive.

875 1052 1146 723 822

797 1122 1052 650 645
953 1015 956 711 608
907 1140 1006 722 650
985 1018 1217 806 724
1177 916 1067 1085 799
1128 877 842 935 650
903 993 981 920 941

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a) Using 100 as the width, set up a frequency
distribution for these data.

Lowest Value = 608 Highest Value = 1217

Sl Class Class Tally Mark Frequency (f)

1 600 --- 700 600 --- 700 IIII 5

2 700 - 800 701 - 801 IIII I 6
3 800 - 900 802 - 902 IIII 4
4 900 - 1000 903 - 1003 IIII IIII I 11
5 1000 - 1100 1004 - 1104 IIII III 8
6 1100 - 1200 1105 - 1205 IIII 5
7 1200 - 1300 1206 - 1306 I 1

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In 1977, home accidents resulted in approximately 24,000
deaths. The following shows the breakdown by category.

Death Category Frequency

Falls 7,500
Fire-arms 1,200
Fires, burns 5,200
Poison (Solid, liquid) 3,000
Poison (gas) 1,000
Suffocation 2,700
Others 3,400
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b) Construct any two diagrams to
present the data for your authority.
A Pie Chart

Falls
Fireamrs
Fires, burns
Poison (Solid, liquid)
Poison (gas)
Suffocation
Others

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 b) Construct any two diagrams to
present the data for your authority.
A Bar Diagram
8,000
7,000
6,000
5,000
4,000
3,000
2,000
1,000
0
Falls Fireamrs Fires, burns Poison Poison (gas) Suffocation Others
(Solid,
liquid)

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1. The records of occupation of 70 families of a
particular locality are given below:
Laborer, laborer, business, profession, laborer,
service, others, laborer, profession, service,
business, others, laborer, profession, service,
business, laborer,, business, service, laborer,
business, laborer, others, profession, service,
laborer, business, profession, service, business,
laborer, business, laborer, business, profession,
service, others, laborer, laborer, laborer, service,
others, laborer, business, service, laborer, laborer,
others, others, laborer, business, profession,
laborer, service, others, laborer, profession,
service, business, others, laborer, profession,
service, business, laborer, business, service,
laborer, business, laborer.
Construct a Frequency Table from the records.
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 Variable
A characteristic or phenomenon, which may
take different values. A characteristic of an
individual or object that is measurable and
takes on different values.

They are Qualitative & Quantitative.

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