A variable can be classified as one of the following types:

Categorical variables
Categorical variables are also called qualitative variables or attribute variables.
The values of a categorical variable can be put into a countable number of
categories or different groups. Categorical data may or may not have some
logical order.
Quantitative variables
The values of a quantitative variable can be ordered and measured.
Often, you will collect both types of data when exploring a single subject, because
categorical variables are often used to group or subset the data in graphs or
analyses. Here are some examples of categorical and quantitative data that you
could collect when exploring the same subject:

Subject of the
analysis

Possible categorical
variables

Possible quantitative
variables

Household
appliance sales

Type of appliance; Make

and model

Sale price

Automobile
body painting

Paint flaws (peel, scratch,

smudge, other); Paint
colors

Temperature of metal to be
painted; Thickness of paint
layer

The following tables show examples of categorical and quantitative variables for
different types of data:

Examples of categorical variables

Data type

Numeric

Text

Examples

Gender (0=Male, 1=Female)

Survey results (1=Disagree, 2=Neutral, 3=Agree)

Payment method (Cash or Credit)

Machine settings (Low, Medium, High)

Data type

Examples

Date/time

Product types (Wood, Plastic, Metal)

Days of the week (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday)
Months of the year (January, February, March)

Examples of quantitative variables

Data type

Numeric

Examples

Number of customer complaints

Proportion of customers eligible for a rebate

Fill weight of a cereal box

Date/time

Date and time payment is received

Date and time of technical support incident

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Correlation is a statistical measure (expressed as a number) that describes the size and
direction of a relationship between two or more variables. A correlation between variables,
however, does not automatically mean that the change in one variable is the cause of the change in
the values of the other variable.

Causation indicates that one event is the result of the occurrence of the other event; i.e. there
is a causal relationship between the two events. This is also referred to as cause and effect.

Definitions of Explanatory and Response

We begin by looking at the definitions of these types of variables. A response
variable is the particular quantity that we ask a question about in our study. An
explanatory variable is any factor that can influence the response variable.