# Question about numeric features **URL:** \ **Category:** Pover-T Tests: Predicting Poverty\ **Created:** [December 22, 2017, 4:32am UTC](https://community.drivendata.org/t/question-about-numeric-features/1689 "2017-12-22T04:32:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![reyemarr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7ba0ec/32.png) [@reyemarr](https://community.drivendata.org/u/reyemarr)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2017, 4:32am UTC](https://community.drivendata.org/t/question-about-numeric-features/1689/1 "2017-12-22T04:32:55Z")
Hi all, I am trying to understand the data and have a question regarding the numeric features in the data set. The description of the data states: > Each question is either multiple choice, in which case each choice has been encoded as random string, or it is a numeric value. > Numeric questions often ask things like How many working cell phones in total does your household own? or How many separate rooms do the members of your household occupy? Based on the sample questions presented, one could think that negative numbers are not a valid option for _some_ of the features (those that include both negative and positive numbers). How are we to interpret the negative values present in those numeric questions of the data set? Does the value have a “meaning” or is it just an encoded version of the actual number? In other words, are negative values just “NA’s”? Thanks, MR ---
**Author:** ![bull](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex028/user_avatar/community.drivendata.org/bull/32/8_2.png) [@bull](https://community.drivendata.org/u/bull)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2017, 5:13pm UTC](https://community.drivendata.org/t/question-about-numeric-features/1689/2 "2017-12-22T17:13:05Z")
Hi MR, good question. Any `NA` values will be blank in the dataset. Negative values in the numeric columns are not `NA` and contain information. Good luck, have fun!