Information from the variation in data
Variation in data is not simply an annoyance — the variation itself can hold important information.
Simply sorting a data set into order can highlight features that are not obvious in the raw data, such as the lack of values between 3.4 and 4.9 in the data below.
6.1 | 5.2 | 7.9 | 2.3 | 3.4 |
1.4 | 5.3 | 7.1 | 3.2 | 2.8 |
5.1 | 6.9 | 6.1 | 3.4 | 5.2 |
5.5 | 2.0 | 1.3 | 4.9 | 6.4 |