Banding numeric variables
This article is part of The Definitive Guide to Uploading and Preparing Data
It's quite common to receive a numeric variable that you need to create categories from. The best practice approach is not to convert the numeric variable to a categorical variable.
Instead derive a new categorical variable where you've specified the 'bands'/'buckets' (ie: the categories).
The classic example is when you receive an age variable with the exact age of each respondent (in years). You may want to create cuts like 'Under 18', '18-40', '40-65', '65+' etc. You derive a new categorical variable with those categories in addition to your original numeric variable.
In the web app
- In the web app, Deriving a Categorical Variable
Using R
- Use the cut() function