Qualitative properties are properties that are observed and can generally not be measured with a numerical result, unlike quantitative properties, which have numerical characteristics.

Description

Qualitative properties are properties that are observed and can generally not be measured with a numerical result. They are contrasted to quantitative properties which have numerical characteristics.

Evaluation

Although measuring something in qualitative terms is difficult, most people can (and will) make a judgement about a behaviour on the basis of how they feel treated. This indicates that qualitative properties are closely related to emotional impressions. A test method can result in qualitative data about something. This can be a categorical result or a binary classification (e.g., pass/fail, go/no go, conform/non-conform). It can sometimes be an engineering judgement.

Categorization

The data that all share a qualitative property form a nominal category. A variable which codes for the presence or absence of such a property is called a binary categorical variable, or equivalently a dummy variable.

Types