Numerical data
Features represented as integers or real-valued numbers. For example, a house valuation model would probably represent the size of a house (in square feet or square meters) as numerical data. Representing a feature as numerical data indicates that the feature’s values have a mathematical relationship to the label. That is, the number of square meters in a house probably has some mathematical relationship to the value of the house.1
Not all integer data should be represented as numerical data. For example, postal codes in some parts of the world are integers; however, integer postal codes shouldn’t be represented as numerical data in models. That’s because a postal code of 20000 is not twice (or half) as potent as a postal code of 10000. Furthermore, although different postal codes do correlate to different real estate values, we can’t assume that real estate values at postal code 20000 are twice as valuable as real estate values at postal code 10000. Postal codes should be represented as categorical data instead.1