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Discovering JMP > Analyze Your Data > Understand Modeling Types
Publication date: 11/10/2021

Understand Modeling Types

In JMP, data can be of different types. JMP refers to this as the modeling type of the data. Table 5.1 describes the three modeling types in JMP.

Table 5.1 Modeling Types

Modeling Type and Description

Examples

Specific Example

Continuous

Numeric data only. Used in operations like sums and means.

Height

Temperature

Time

The time to complete a test might be 2 hours, or 2.13 hours.

Ordinal

Numeric or character data. Values belong to ordered categories.

Month (1,2,...,12)

Letter grade (A, B,...F)

Size (small, medium, large)

The month of the year can be 2 (February) or 3 (March), but not 2.13. February comes before March.

Nominal

Numeric or character data. Values belong to categories, but the order is not important.

Gender (M or F)

Color

Test result (pass or fail)

The gender can be M or F, with no order. Gender categories can also be represented by a number (M=1 and F=2).

Multiple Response

Character data only. Distinct entries in a single cell that are separated by commas.

When you brush your teeth

College degrees

Sports you play

There are several times a day that you could brush your teeth. First thing in the morning, after breakfast, after meals, before bed, or any combination of the above.

Unstructured Text

Character data only. Usually all unique values that must be analyzed using Text Explorer.

Product reviews

Song lyrics

Free response field in survey

Most product reviews would be unique and Text Explorer is used to determine any underlying similarities.

Vector

Expression data only. Values in a cell are column or row vectors.

Prediction formulas

None

Any data type. Used in scenarios where a column is not well represented by the other modeling types.

Pictures

ID Values

A picture column in a data table would not be used to modeling, but could be used as a marker on a graph for example.

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