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Would longitude/latitude be considered discrete or continuous data? I am really struggling to determine which one it is. This is assuming it's numerical. Could it be categorical? Thanks.

Andrew
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    (1) It's an empty question really unless you explain what you're wanting to do with the data. Clearly you'll only have recorded geographical co-ordinates with finite precision. (2) Note that longitude is a circular measure for almost any purpose you might put it to. – Scortchi - Reinstate Monica Aug 10 '17 at 10:00
  • I have to identify what type of variable it is. It's that simple.To be more specific. I mean the longitude and latitude of a property. – Andrew Aug 10 '17 at 10:22
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    But why do you "have to identify what type of variable it is"? What are you proposing to do with the information? – mdewey Aug 10 '17 at 12:16
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    It really depends on how you record and treat it, and to some extent, to how narrow a range of values you have. If you have latitudes values between -90 and 90 that are to the nearest degree most people would treat that as continuous -- but if they're all between 35 and 40 and still only recorded to the nearest degree that would normally be seen as discrete. – Glen_b Aug 11 '17 at 02:10
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    Unfortunately, identifying the type of a variable is anything but simple: it depends on what the variable measures, how it is recorded, how you think about it, how you model it, what statistical procedures you might apply, and what kind of conclusions you want to draw. This requires such complex and sophisticated reasoning that usually it's better to ask simpler, directly useful questions such as those posed in the preceding comments. – whuber Aug 14 '17 at 15:19

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Since latitude and longitude can take any value in the available range, it seems pretty clear that they are continuous. But in any given data set, they may have been categorized.

Peter Flom
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Make it a numerical type, either float or double.

Although it represents location, like zipcode, in this circumstance a higher longitudinal or latitudinal value does represent a farther distance.

The fact that coordinates contain decimal numbers also makes it numerical.

Chris
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Continuous numerical data take any value within an allowable range, whereby the range can be finite or infinite. Even though Latitudes are in a finite range, they can have any value, with any level of specificity (or decimal places). So, latitudes, should be Continuous Numerical data.

They are definitely not categorical data (or simply labels, like male/female).

Sus
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