Bar Graph vs Frequency Table
Both terms below come up in the same part of the course, and students mix them up. Here is each one defined on its own, side by side, so you can see where they part company.
Bar graph
Graphs and displays
A bar graph displays a categorical variable using separated bars whose heights show the count or relative frequency of each category.
A bar graph uses one bar per category, with bar height showing how common that category is. For example, bars for red, blue, and green with heights 12, 8, and 5 show which color is most popular. The bars are drawn with gaps between them because the categories are distinct labels, not a number line. This gap is the key visual difference from a histogram, which shows quantitative data.
Frequency table
Graphs and displays
A frequency table lists the categories or value ranges of a variable alongside the count of observations in each.
A frequency table organizes raw data by showing how many observations fall into each category or class. For example, a table of favorite colors might show red 12, blue 8, and green 5. Adding a column that divides each count by the total turns it into relative frequencies. Here the total is , so red's relative frequency is .