Chapter 2

Organizing and
Visualizing Variables

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 Objectives
In this chapter you learn:
 How to organize and visualize categorical
variables.
 How to organize and visualize numerical
variables.
 How to summarize a mix of variables.
 How to avoid making common errors when
organizing and visualizing variables.

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Visualizing Two Numerical Variables
By Using Graphical Displays
DCOVA

Two Numerical
Variables

Scatter Time-
Plot Series
Plot

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 Visualizing Two Numerical
Variables: The Scatter Plot
DCOVA
 Scatter plots are used for numerical data consisting of paired
observations taken from two numerical variables.

 One variable’s values are displayed on the horizontal or X

axis and the other variable’s values are displayed on the
vertical or Y axis.

 Scatter plots are used to examine possible relationships

between two numerical variables.

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 Scatter Plot Example
DCOVA

Volume Cost per

per day day
Cost per Day vs. Production Volume
23 125
250
26 140
200
29 146
Cost per Day

150
33 160
100
38 167
50
42 170
0
50 188
20 30 40 50 60 70
55 195
Volume per Day
60 200

A L WAY S L E A R N I N G Copyright © 2020 Pearson Education Ltd. Slide 5

Visualizing Two Numerical
Variables: The Time Series Plot
DCOVA
 A Time-Series Plot is used to study
patterns in the values of a numeric
variable over time.

 The Time-Series Plot:

 Numeric variable’s values are on the
vertical axis and the time period is on
the horizontal axis.

A L WAY S L E A R N I N G Copyright © 2020 Pearson Education Ltd. Slide 6

 Time Series Plot Example
DCOVA
Number of
Year Franchises
2009 43
2010 54
2011 60
2012 73
2013 82
2014 95 Number of Franchises, 1996-2004

2015 107 120

Number of Franchises
2016 99 100
80
2017 95 60
40
20
0
2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018
Year

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Organizing A Mix Of Variables: The
Multidimensional Contingency Table
DCOVA
 A multidimensional contingency table is constructed by
tallying the responses of three or more categorical variables.
 Can be used to discover possible patterns and relationships in
multidimensional data that simpler tables and charts would fail to
make apparent.

 As a practical rule, tables should be limited to no more than

three or four variables.
 In typical use, these tables:
 Extend contingency tables to two or more row or column variables, or
 Replace the frequencies found in a contingency table with summary
information about a numeric variable.

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 A Multidimensional Contingency Table
Tallies Responses Of Three or More
Categorical Variables
DCOVA

Two Dimensional Table Showing Three Dimensional Table

Fund Type and Risk Level for Showing Fund Type, Market
sample of 479 retirement funds. Cap, and Risk Level for the
sample of the 479 retirement
funds.

A L WAY S L E A R N I N G Copyright © 2020 Pearson Education Ltd. Slide 9

 Excel, Minitab, and JMP Can Be Used To
Create Multidimensional Contingency Tables
DCOVA
 In Excel creating a Pivot Table yields an interactive
display of this type.

 In JMP you can create a table that is also interactive.

 In Minitab you can create such a table but it is not

interactive.

 JMP and Minitab have many specialized statistical &

graphical procedures (not covered in this book) to
analyze & visualize multidimensional data.

A L WAY S L E A R N I N G Copyright © 2020 Pearson Education Ltd. Slide 10

Drilling-Down On A Table Reveals
The Data The Table Summarizes
DCOVA
 Clicking a cell in an Excel table displays the
rows of data associated with that cell.

 Clicking a cell in a JMP table highlights those

the rows of data that are the source for that cell.

 Drill-down is perhaps the simplest form of data

discovery.

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Drill-Down Reveals The Data
Underlying A Higher-Level Summary
DCOVA
Results of drilling down to
the details about small value
funds with low risk revealing
the ten-year return ranges from
4.83% to 9.44%.

A L WAY S L E A R N I N G Copyright © 2020 Pearson Education Ltd. Slide 12

Displays To Visualize A Mix Of Many
Variables
DCOVA
 Displays are more useful than a multidimensional
contingency table with many row and column
variables.
 The data (not just summary statistics) can be
shown for numerical variables.
 Multiple numerical variables can be presented in
one summarization.
 Visualizations can reveal patterns that can be
hard to see in tables.

A L WAY S L E A R N I N G Copyright © 2020 Pearson Education Ltd. Slide 13

Colored Scatter Plots Visualize Both
Numerical Variables & Categorical Variable(s)
Observations: DCOVA
Large Market Capitalization Funds (red dots)
1. Relatively have best returns and lowest expense ratios.

2. Some have either low returns or high expense ratios or both.

JMP Colored
Scatter Plot

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Bubble Charts Extend Scatter Plots
DCOVA
 Use the size of points (called bubbles) to
represent the value of an additional variable.

 In Excel and Minitab the additional variable

must be numerical.

 In JMP the variable can be either numerical or

categorical.

A L WAY S L E A R N I N G Copyright © 2020 Pearson Education Ltd. Slide 15

An Excel PivotChart Visualizes Specific
Categories From A PivotTable Summary
DCOVA
Low Risk Small
Market Cap Funds
Have The Highest Mean
Return Among Low Risk
Funds.

A L WAY S L E A R N I N G Copyright © 2020 Pearson Education Ltd. Slide 16

 Treemaps Are Graphical Displays Of
Contingency Tables
DCOVA
Excel Treemap: JMP Treemap:
Size of tiles correspond to Size of tiles correspond to the value
the frequency in a cell. of the numeric variable Market Cap.

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Sparklines Are Compact Time-Series
Visualizations Of Numerical Variables
DCOVA

Movie
revenues
by week
per month

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Filtering and Querying Data
DCOVA
 Two operations associated with preparing tabular
or visual summaries are Data Filtering and
Querying.
 Data filtering selects rows of data that match
criteria; specified value(s) for specific variable(s).
 Data Querying is similar but may not select all of
the columns of the matching rows.
 Excel, JMP, and Minitab all have various filtering &
query features.

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Example Of JMP & Minitab Filtering /
Querying
DCOVA
Selecting all rows in value retirement funds that
have ten-year return percentages that are greater
than or equal to 9.

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 Excel Slicers Filter & Query Data
From A Pivot Table
DCOVA
 A slicer is a panel of clickable buttons
superimposed over a worksheet.

 Each button in a slicer represents a unique

value of a variable found in a the source data of
a PivotTable.

 By clicking buttons in the slicer panels, you

query the data.

A L WAY S L E A R N I N G Copyright © 2020 Pearson Education Ltd. Slide 21

 Example Of Slicers For The
Retirement Funds Workbook
DCOVA
With the four slicers below, you can ask questions such as:
1. What are the attributes of the fund(s) with the lowest expense ratio?
2. What are the expense ratios associated with large market cap value
funds that have a star rating of five?

A L WAY S L E A R N I N G Copyright © 2020 Pearson Education Ltd. Slide 22

 Answering The Questions
What are the DCOVA
attributes of the What are the expense ratios
fund(s) with the associated with large market cap value
lowest expense ratio? funds that have a star rating of five?

The updated The expense ratios for these funds are:

PivotTable (not shown 0.83, 094, 1.05, 1.09, 1.18, and 1.19.
below) reveals only
one such fund.

A L WAY S L E A R N I N G Copyright © 2020 Pearson Education Ltd. Slide 23

 The Challenges in Organizing
and Visualizing Variables DCOVA

 When organizing and visualizing data need to

be mindful of:
 The limits of other’s ability to perceive and
comprehend.
 Presentation issues that can undercut the usefulness
of methods from this chapter.
 It is easy to create summaries that:
 Obscure the data or
 Create false impressions.
 Contain Chartjunk

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An Example Of Obscuring Data,
Information Overload
DCOVA

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 False Impressions Can Be
Created In Many Ways DCOVA

 Selective summarization:
 Presenting only part of the data collected.

 Improperly constructed charts:

 Potential pie chart issues.
 Improperly scaled axes.
 A Y axis that does not begin at the origin or is a
broken axis missing intermediate values.

 Chartjunk.
A L WAY S L E A R N I N G Copyright © 2020 Pearson Education Ltd. Slide 26
An Example of Selective Summarization, These
Two Summarizations Tell Totally Different Stories
DCOVA

Change
from
Prior
Company Year Company Year 1 Year 2 Year 3
A +7.2% A -22.6% -33.2% +7.2%
B +24.4% B -4.5% -41.9% +24.4%
C +24.9% C -18.5% -31.5% +24.9%
D +24.8% D -29.4% -48.1% +24.8%
E +12.5% E -1.9% -25.3% +12.5%
F +35.1% F -1.6% -37.8% +35.1%
G +29.7% G +7.4% -13.6% +29.7%

A L WAY S L E A R N I N G Copyright © 2020 Pearson Education Ltd. Slide 27

How Obvious Is It That Both Pie Charts
Summarize The Same Data? DCOVA

Why is it hard to tell? What would you do to improve?

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 Graphical Errors:
No Relative Basis DCOVA

Bad Presentation  Good Presentation

A’s received by A’s received by
Freq. students. % students.
30%
300

200 20%

100 10%

0 0%
FR SO JR SR FR SO JR SR

FR = Freshmen, SO = Sophomore, JR = Junior, SR = Senior

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 Graphical Errors:
Compressing the Vertical Axis
DCOVA

Bad Presentation  Good Presentation

Quarterly Sales Quarterly Sales
$ $
200 50

100 25

0 0
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4

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 Graphical Errors: No Zero Point
on the Vertical Axis
DCOVA

Bad Presentation
 Good Presentations

Monthly Sales $ Monthly Sales

$ 45
45
42
42 39
39 36
36 0
J F M A M J J F M A M J

Graphing the first six months of sales

A L WAY S L E A R N I N G Copyright © 2020 Pearson Education Ltd. Slide 31

 Graphical Errors: Chart Junk,
Can You Identify The Junk?
DCOVA

Bad Presentation  Good Presentation

Left illustration adapted from S. Watterson, “Liquid Gold—Australians Are Changing the World of Wine. Even the French Seem Grateful.” Time,
November 22, 1999, p. 68-69

A L WAY S L E A R N I N G Copyright © 2020 Pearson Education Ltd. Slide 32

 Best Practices for Constructing
Visualizations DCOVA
 Use the simplest possible visualization.
 Include a title & label all axes.
 Include a scale for each axis if the chart contains axes.
 Begin the scale for a vertical axis at zero & use a
constant scale.
 Avoid 3D or “exploded” effects & the use of chartjunk.
 Use consistent colorings in charts meant to be compared.
 Avoid using uncommon chart types including radar,
surface, bubble, cone, and pyramid charts.

A L WAY S L E A R N I N G Copyright © 2020 Pearson Education Ltd. Slide 33

 Chapter Summary
In this chapter we covered:
 Organizing and visualizing categorical variables.
 Organizing and visualizing numerical variables.
 Summarizing a mix of variables.
 Avoiding common errors when organizing and
visualizing variables.

A L WAY S L E A R N I N G Copyright © 2020 Pearson Education Ltd. Slide 34