Qualitative and quantitative are the two general types of ways to gather and report information. Qualitative data is information about qualities; information that cannot be measured. Quantitative data is information about quantities; information that can be measured.
To use the qualitative data to collect information focuses on describing a fact in a complete manner. Although it can be thought of as subjective, shared with a number of other it can provide an intangible understanding that certain things are happening within a group or individual. Some benefits to this type of data is it can provide a better understanding of mechanisms, provide subjective information, and provide verbal information that can be changed into numbers. However there can be some limitations such as statistical challenges and difficulty assessing associations between characteristics.
The quantitative data can be information gathered on a fact. It can also be founded on an objective manner. This can be summarized, making it possible to compare the information against each other. This method enables generalization. The gathering of information of a large group is possible. Reporting can be listed in several categories allowing comparison, would provide numerical information, and can allow the determination of relations to variable for statistical reporting. It may be hard to recognize new information.
It is important to know exactly what needs to be reported before starting to collect the data. When looking at reports of comparison it would be necessary to use the quantitative data collected. Trying to compare a disease, research, or surgical outcome would be hard if qualitative data was all that was on hand.
With each type of data a different perspective may be assessed. There are pros and cons to both. Anyone using the qualitative data or the quantitative data needs to understand which one is being used and how to understand the differences. The end results can a totally different.
