bandby

Bandby is a data analysis technique used to transform a continuous variable into discrete categories by partitioning its range into a set of non-overlapping intervals called bands. The approach supports simplified summaries, easier visualization, and comparisons across ranges.

In practice, banding can be implemented as equal-width bands (dividing the range into intervals of equal size), equal-frequency bands (each band contains approximately the same number of observations), or adaptive bands (intervals defined by data density or domain-specific thresholds). Each observation is assigned to a band based on its value, after which band-level statistics such as mean, median, count, or rate can be computed and compared. Bandby is commonly used in exploratory analysis, dashboards, and reporting to highlight thresholds, trends, or anomalies across the spectrum of a variable.

Applications of bandby span diverse fields. In economics, it may illustrate income or expenditure distributions. In public health and epidemiology, bands can categorize risk or exposure levels to compare outcomes. In environmental science, pollutant concentrations are often presented in bands to signal safe or hazardous ranges. In marketing, customer behavior can be analyzed by spending or engagement bands, aiding segmentation and targeting.

Advantages include reduced noise, improved interpretability, and straightforward visualization. Limitations involve potential loss of fine-grained information, sensitivity to the choice of band number and width, and possible edge effects where observations lie near band boundaries. Proper use requires justification for band definitions and awareness of the analysis goals.

See also: binning, discretization, histograms, quantile-based grouping.