Statistics for Business: Decision Making and Analysis, 3rd Edition

2.5 Further Attributes of Data

We must understand the rows and columns of tables to analyze data. Other characteristics put this information into context. For example, it can be useful to know when and where the data were collected. A time or date can be relevant even if data are cross sectional. The prices of the used BMWs in the second preview example are not a time series, but it’s important to know when these data were collected. We would expect the asking price of a 2013 BMW offered for sale in 2016 to be a lot higher than the asking price of the same car in 2020. When and where often matter with Web data. Consider Google’s data on whether users click on ads during searches. In order to tell whether users click on ads more at night than ...