Variable
What is a variable in statistics?
A characteristic or question we record for each observation.
A variable includes all the answers given to a question. We organize variables into columns. It is called a variable because it varies from one record to another.
In Sibling Interviews, the collection of answers people give for their hometown would be one variable. So a variable has many values inside it (similar to how an observation has many values inside). In fact, it has exactly as many values as you have observations. That number is called your sample size and is written as a lowercase "n".
Before we analyze anything, it is worth understanding the types of variables we have.
From our own dataset
"Favorite color" is a variable.
Where we teach it
Lesson 1.2 of Project 1: Sibling Interviews. Watch lesson 1.2 and read the notes, free with a free account.
Related terms
- Column: A vertical line of cells.
- Categorical variable: A variable whose values are text.
- Numerical variable: A variable whose values are numbers.
- Value: A single data point.
- Observation: A complete record of the characteristics we observed about one person or thing.