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Turning a continuous variable into a discrete variable

dannyfinn11

Hi all - was wondering if someone could give me a few pointers on a problem I'm struggling with. I would like to create a dummy variable using a range of values based on a continuous variable.

I would like to take a set of values and place them in nominal "buckets" if you will.

For example the data is

I want take those values and id when range they fall into. So 1- 12, 13-20, etc. Any ideas??

Accepted answers

All comments

txnelson

select the column you are interested in, and then go to

Cols==>Recode

and create a new column that has the values binned into new groups

dannyfinn11

done. But what about large datasets? The one I was working on was only 450 rows. If I have a dataset with 29K rows, can I use a formula to go through and recode everything?

txnelson

1. Yes you can use a formula. Here is one version that you could use

If( Row() == 1,
	min = Col Min( :height );
	incr = (Col Max( :height ) - Col Min( :height )) / 9;
);
Floor( (:height - min) / incr ) + 1;

It uses the Big Class sample data table. Just change the variable :Height out for the column you are calculating against.

2. But the number of rows does not affect the Recode. Only the number of unique values within those rows.

Mark_Bailey

I think that Jim already answered your question, but I wanted to expand a bit on the answer. The If() function in a formula or script is very versatile. Here is an example of what you want to do (bin data) from our JMP Software: Introduction to the JMP Scripting Language:

It compares the numeric value in Age with the cutoffs and returns a character string in the new column, Stage.

Mark_Bailey

I forgot to mention that if you are not otherwise scripting, you can interactively create a new data column with the bins: select the data column with the continuous values and then select Cols > Utilities > Make Binning Formula.

dannyfinn11

YES!! This is what I needed Thank you!!

Jeff_Perkinson

You may find the Interactive Binning add-in useful.

JSpear

I tried to follow this example using a column formula. I get no error but the column is blank.

Craige_Hales

if "Pilot A", etc, is a string, it needs quotation marks. There might be a message in the log about an undefined variable.