Remove sort and plot type options from categorical attributes

[Copilot]

Categorical attributes were incorrectly processed as numerical data, computing meaningless statistics (mean, median, quartiles) and offering sort-by-mean functionality in the UI. Additionally, categorical attributes had plot type change options even though they only support one fixed visualization type.

Changes

Core Package

• getSixNumberSummary: Added columnTypes parameter to filter out categorical attributes before computing statistics
• Aggregation pipeline: Threaded columnTypes through firstAggregation, secondAggregation, and all helper functions (aggregateByDegree, aggregateBySets, etc.)
• Sort safety: Added optional chaining in sortByAttribute to handle missing mean values gracefully

UI Package

• AttributeButton: Check attribute type via attTypesSelector to conditionally render options for categorical attributes:
  • Exclude sort options (Ascending/Descending) since categorical attributes don't have meaningful numerical statistics to sort by
  • Exclude plot type change options (Box Plot, Dot Plot, Strip Plot, Density Plot) since categorical attributes only support one visualization type (stacked bar chart)
  • Disable click-to-sort behavior for categorical attributes

Example

Before:

getSixNumberSummary(items, memberItems, ['Age', 'Generation'])
// Would attempt to compute mean/median on 'Generation' strings

After:

getSixNumberSummary(items, memberItems, ['Age', 'Generation'], columnTypes)
// Internally filters to ['Age'] when 'Generation' is type 'category'

Context Menu Behavior

Categorical attributes (e.g., "Generation"):

• ❌ No sort options
• ❌ No plot type change options
• ✅ Only "Remove [attribute]" option (if attribute removal is enabled)

Numerical attributes (e.g., "Age"):

• ✅ Sort by Ascending/Descending
• ✅ Change plot type options
• ✅ Remove attribute option

Original prompt

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This section details on the original issue you should resolve

<issue_title>Sort options should be removed from categorical attributes</issue_title>
<issue_description>It doesn't make sense to be able to sort by categorical atts; while this doesn't cause an error and SOME sorting occurs, this should be removed entirely. Relatedly, it appears that getSixNumberSummary can be called on categorical atts and returns a value ie for the Data Table; this should also be updated as a SixNumberSummary does not make sense for categorical atts.</issue_description>

Comments on the Issue (you are @copilot in this section)

• Fixes Sort options should be removed from categorical attributes #557

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[JakeWags]

@copilot We also need to remove the "change plot" options for categorical attributes since there is only one visualization type, which already exists and cannot be changed.

[Copilot]

@copilot We also need to remove the "change plot" options for categorical attributes since there is only one visualization type, which already exists and cannot be changed.

Done in commit 40a80d9. The "Change plot type to..." options are now excluded from the context menu for categorical attributes.

What changed:

• Categorical attributes (like "Generation") only support one visualization type: the stacked bar chart
• The context menu for categorical attributes now only shows "Remove [attribute]" (if enabled)
• Numerical attributes continue to show all plot type options (Box Plot, Dot Plot, Strip Plot, Density Plot)

Implementation:
Added && !isCategorical check to the condition that adds plot type menu items, so they're only shown for non-categorical, non-UPSET attributes.