Using JMP - SAS

144 Set Column Properties Chapter 5
The Column Info Window
– Character columns contain any characters, including numbers. In character columns, numbers are
seen as characters and are treated as discrete values instead of continuous values. The maximum field
width for character values is 32,766 bytes.
– Row State columns contain row state information, which indicates whether the rows are excluded,
hidden, labeled, colored, or marked. See “Row State Columns” on page 149.
Note: Short-integer formats might also be available. See “The Short-Integer Format” on page 145.
Modeling Type (Numeric or Character data types only) Select or change the modeling type of a column,
which tells JMP how to treat the column’s values during analyses. You can change the modeling type to look
at a variable in different ways. See “About Data Types and Modeling Types” on page 144.
Choose from the following modeling types:
– Continuous columns contain only numeric data types. Continuous values are treated as continuous
measurement values. JMP uses the numeric values directly in computations.
– Ordinal columns contain either numeric or character data types. JMP analyses treat ordinal values as
discrete categorical values that have an order. If the values are numbers, the order is the numeric
magnitude. If the values are character, the order is the sorting sequence.
– Nominal columns contain either numeric or character data types. All values are treated in JMP
analyses as if they are discrete values with no implicit order.
Format (Numeric data types only) Select or change the display format of a numeric column. See
“Numeric Formats” on page 146.
Initialize Data (Appears only during new column creation) Specify the type of initial data values that you
want to appear in the column. See “Fill in Initial Data Values” on page 150.
Column Properties (Contains a list of different properties) Assign properties to columns. See “Assign
Column Properties” on page 151.
Tip: Use the Next button to continue adding columns.
About Data Types and Modeling Types
A column in a JMP data table can contain different types of information. However, all information in a
single column must have the same data and modeling types.
• When you import data, JMP guesses which data and modeling types to use. Therefore, you should
verify that JMP has guessed correctly.
• When you manually insert data into JMP, you should assign a data type and a modeling type at that
time.
Figure 5.3 illustrates the icons that identify the different modeling types.