Whether to assume nominal variables are ordinal when computing distance measurement for mixed?

Question

English following dutch

In mijn afstandmaat voor mengelingen van variabele mag ik alleen een combinatie van continue en ordinale variabele gebruiken. Mijn data bestaat echter uit een mengeling van ordinale, nominale en continue variabele. Mag ik aannemen dat al mijn nominale variabele ook ordinaal zijn of maak ik dan een gigantische fout in mijn waarneemingen?

English: In my distance measurement for mixed I can only use a combination of continuous and ordinal variables. But my data has a combination of nominal, ordinal and continuous variables. Would it make sense to assume that my nominal variables are ordinal or do I make a huge mistake in that way?

Answer 1

Without knowing the details of what you are trying to do, you have a very bold assumption right there; assuming that your nominal variables are ordinal, means that you assume that they can be ranked. I would try to avoid that kind of assumption as it can add unpredicted side effects in your analysis.