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Does it make sense to draw a histogram where its x-variable is categorical? I know that normally categorical variables are represented with bar charts, but I am just wondering if in practice it is okay to assume my categorical x variable to be continuous and make a histogram out of it.

For example, if my x-variable stands for a "layer", which consists of the levels 1,2,3,...,12 (discrete), would it be okay, say, assume that layer is a continuous variable and draw a histogram and density curve based on my data, for my computational academic paper?

I don't want my paper to be rejected just because I drew a density and histogram of my discrete x-variable, and mentioned something about "the mode" of the histogram.

Thank you,

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    $\begingroup$ Are your data categorical or discrete? By discrete, I mean that the $11$ means $11$ somethings, one more then $10$ somethings but one less than $12$ somethings. $\endgroup$
    – Dave
    Sep 15, 2020 at 18:58
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    $\begingroup$ Technically, wrong to make a histogram for categorical x. Also possibly misleading because the separated bars in a bar chart do not suggest continuity, whereas the histogram bins do suggest continuity. // Consider pie charts for nominal categorical data (segments often ordered according to frequency/proportion) and bar charts for ordinal categorical data (bars in proper order). But there are instances where these choices may not be best. (For example with Likert-5 (strongly neg, somewhat neg, ... stongly pos) a pie chart with sectors in order can show whether neg feeling predominates).. $\endgroup$
    – BruceET
    Sep 15, 2020 at 18:59
  • $\begingroup$ I'd say my layer is discrete, since layer 2 is on the top of layer 1, layer 3 is on the top of layer 2, and so on. $\endgroup$
    – HDB
    Sep 15, 2020 at 19:42

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