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I have a simple question: does any data gathered over time could be treated as a time series? For instance, if I measure CPU load at certain intervals, would that be a time series? Actually, I'm not interested on actual time of the measurement. I could simply mark the points along x-axis as 1, 2, 3, ... -- what is relevant to me is certain values at certain points of time.

Further, could I do time series analysis on the data set if I have irregular observation intervals?

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2  
Yes to everything, by definition. Wikipedia, Search 1, Search 2. – user10525 Apr 25 '12 at 16:01
Also note that there are pros and cons to a time series because of the additional relationship of time: it gives you more information, but it also can tie things together in ways that can mislead you. – Wayne Apr 25 '12 at 17:07
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@Procrastinator, please visit meta.stackoverflow.com/a/15660/166924. – whuber Apr 25 '12 at 17:43
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@whuber Thanks for this. – user10525 Apr 25 '12 at 18:37

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