VISUAL REPRESENTATION OF DATA
CHAPTER 3
VISUAL REPRESENTATION
• Managers can only benefit from statistical findings if the information can easily
be interpreted and effectively communicated to them.
• Summary tables and graphs are commonly used to convey descriptive statistical
results. A table or a graph can convey information much more quickly and vividly
than a written report.
• For graphs in particular, there is much truth in the adage ‘a picture is worth a
thousand words’.
• In practice, an analyst should always consider using summary tables and graphical
displays ahead of written texts, in order to convey statistical information to
managers.
CATEGORICAL FREQUENCY TABLE
• A categorical frequency table summarises data for a single categorical variable. It
shows how many times each category appears in a sample of data and measures
the relative importance of the different categories.
BAR CHARTS
• A bar chart consists of a series of rectangular bars where the length
of each bar represents the actual magnitude of the respective
quantities
• To construct a bar chart, draw a horizontal axis (x-axis) to represent
the categories and a vertical axis (y-axis) scaled to show either the
frequency counts or the percentages of each category. Then construct
vertical bars for each category to the height of its frequency count (or
percentage) on the y-axis
BAR CHART ILLUSTRATION
PIE CHART
• A pie chart is often used to give a visual presentation of data to
indicate the proportions that make up a given total. The pie chart is a
circle that is divided into sectors by lines, in such a way that the area
of each sector is proportional to the size of the quantity represented
by that sector
• To construct a pie chart, divide a circle into category segments. The
size of each segment must be proportional to the count (or
percentage) of its category. The sum of the segment counts (or
percentages) must equal the sample size (or 100%).
CLASS ILLUSTRATION
• A market research company conducted a survey amongst grocery shoppers to identify their
demographic profile and shopping patterns. A random sample of 30 grocery shoppers was asked
to complete a questionnaire that identified: at which grocery store they most preferred to shop the
number of visits to the grocery store in the last month
PIE CHART
• CALCULATE THE PERCENTAGE FOR EACH CATEGORY
PIE CHART
INTERPRETATION
Management interpretation
1. The grocery store most preferred by shoppers is pick n pay.
2. More than half of the sampled shoppers (56.7%) prefer to shop at
pick n pay for their groceries.
3. Only 10% of the sampled shoppers prefer to do their grocery
shopping at spar
MULTIPLE BAR CHARTS
• A multiple bar chart is one in which the bars are displayed side by side, often in
pairs or triples, to emphasize comparison
•
MULTIPLE BAR CHARTS
PICTOGRAMS
• A pictogram is a graph in which data is displayed using pictures
SCATTER DIAGRAMS
• The relationship between two quantitative variables can be depicted in a scatter
diagram.
• Ice-cr sales depend
On the temp.
Sales – dependent (y)
Temp – independent(x)
SCATTER PLOT
CORRELATION
Correlation is a statistical measure that indicates the extent to which two
or more variables fluctuate in relation to each other.
FREQUENCY DISTRIBUTIONS
• Raw data which is unprocessed data we obtain in the collection phase, is often
difficult to interpret because there are usually too many values to easily
distinguish any pattern in the data
The classes or class intervals represent the possible data values that the variables
can assume.
The class midpoint represents the middle value of a class interval
The frequencies (or the count)
FREQUENCY DISTRIBUTION TABLE
FREQUENCY DISTRIBUTION TABLE
CUMULATIVE FREQUENCY TABLE
• A cumulative frequency table is similar to a standard frequency table, expect
that the class intervals do not have bounds
HISTOGRAM
• A histogram is a graphic display of a numeric frequency distribution.
FREQUENCY POLYGON
• A frequency polygon is a line graph that emphasises the continuous change in
frequency.
CUMULATIVE FREQUENCY TABLE
• A cumulative frequency table is similar to a standard frequency table, expect
that the class intervals do not have bounds
OGIVE
• An ogive is a graph of a cumulative frequency distribution.
