Data Type

The data type of a parameter describes the kind of scale within which the values of a parameter might be given in.

• nominal: Unordered set (only = or != relations)
  Example: film titles.
• ordinal: Ordered set (=, !=, <, and > relations)
  Example: film ratings.
• discrete: Numeric range (Integer, arithmetic possible)
  Example:film year.
• continuous: Numeric range (Real/float numbers, arithmetic possible)
  Example: film length.
• binary: true or false (Boolean arithmetic)
  Example: film available.

Note: Other often used terms in relation to data types are qualitative, quantitative, and categorical. Whereas qualitative subsumes nominal and ordinal, quantitative subsumes discrete and continuous, and categorical might be nominal, ordinal, or discrete data.