Discrete and Continuous Variables: A quantitative variable may be confidential as discrete or continuous. A discrete variable is one that can take only a discrete set of integers or whole numbers, which is the values are taken by jumps or breaks. A discrete variable represents count data such as the number of persons in a family, the number of rooms in a house, the number of deaths in an accident, the income of an individual, etc. A variable is called a continuous variable if it can take on any value-fractional or integral––within a given interval, i.e. Its domain is an interval with all possible values without gaps. A continuous variable represents measurement data such as the age of a person, the height of a plant, the weight of a commodity, the temperature at a place, etc. A variable whether countable or measurable, is generally denoted by some symbol such as X or Y and Xi or Xj represents the ith or jth value of the variable. The subscript I or j is replaced by a number such as 1,2,3, … when referred to a particular value.
