Briefly |
Every program has special vocabulary. This glossary connects our words to other vocabulary describing similar things. |
our word |
a.k.a. |
meaning |
case |
record, data point |
one entity, such as person or animal or state, about which data has been recorded. |
collection |
data set, file |
a bunch of cases, taken together. Fathom will let you have several collections in a single document. |
attribute |
variable |
cases have attributes. Each attribute has a separate value for each case. |
continuous [attribute] |
measurement [variable] |
an attribute whose values are numeric (e.g., height, with values such as 62.5, 51.25, and 0. |
categorical [attribute] |
nominal [variable] |
an attribute whose values are non-numeric (e.g., sex, with values male and female) |
measure |
aggregate statistic |
a number that describes a group of cases, e.g., a mean; in Fathom, measures are like attributes that apply to the collection |