Ordinal encoding is a technique used to convert categorical data into numerical format by assigning integer values based on the order of categories. It is particularly useful for ordinal data where the order of categories is important, but the distance between them is not necessarily uniform or meaningful.

Ordinal Encoding

Ordinal encoding

Categorical data represents variables that can be divided into distinct categories, often without a natural order, and is used in statistical analysis to classify data points. Handling categorical data effectively is crucial for accurate data analysis and modeling, as it often requires encoding techniques to convert it into a numerical format for algorithms that require numerical input.

categorical data

numerical format

integer values

order of categories

Ordinal data represents categories with a meaningful order but without a uniform scale, allowing for the ranking of data points. Unlike interval data, ordinal data does not quantify the difference between categories, making it suitable for non-parametric statistical tests.

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