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In mathematics and statistics, a quantitative variable may be continuous or discrete if it is typically obtained by measuring or counting, respectively. [1] If it can take on two particular real values such that it can also take on all real values between them (including values that are arbitrarily or infinitesimally close together), the variable is continuous in that interval. [2]
To define probability distributions for the specific case of random variables (so the sample space can be seen as a numeric set), it is common to distinguish between discrete and absolutely continuous random variables. In the discrete case, it is sufficient to specify a probability mass function assigning a probability to each possible outcome ...
Discrete time views values of variables as occurring at distinct, separate "points in time", or equivalently as being unchanged throughout each non-zero region of time ("time period")—that is, time is viewed as a discrete variable. Thus a non-time variable jumps from one value to another as time moves from one time period to the next.
A random variable X is said to be absolutely continuous if any of the following conditions are satisfied: there is a nonnegative measurable function f on the real line such that P ( X ∈ A ) = ∫ A f ( x ) d x , {\displaystyle \operatorname {P} (X\in A)=\int _{A}f(x)\,dx,} for any Borel set A , in which the integral is Lebesgue.
Mechanisms for discretizing continuous data include Fayyad & Irani's MDL method, [2] which uses mutual information to recursively define the best bins, CAIM, CACC, Ameva, and many others [3] Many machine learning algorithms are known to produce better models by discretizing continuous attributes.
A mixed random variable is a random variable whose cumulative distribution function is neither discrete nor everywhere-continuous. [10] It can be realized as a mixture of a discrete random variable and a continuous random variable; in which case the CDF will be the weighted average of the CDFs of the component variables.
This is useful because it puts deterministic variables and random variables in the same formalism. The discrete uniform distribution, where all elements of a finite set are equally likely. This is the theoretical distribution model for a balanced coin, an unbiased die, a casino roulette, or the first card of a well-shuffled deck.
It is possible to represent certain discrete random variables as well as random variables involving both a continuous and a discrete part with a generalized probability density function using the Dirac delta function. (This is not possible with a probability density function in the sense defined above, it may be done with a distribution.)