Numerical Coding of Nominal Data
  In this paper, a novel approach for coding nominal data is proposed. For the given nominal data, a rank in a form of complex number is assigned. The proposed method does not lose any information about the attribute and brings other properties previously unknown. The approach based on these knew properties can been used for classification. The analyzed example shows that classification with the use of coded nominal data or both numerical as well as coded nominal data is more effective than the classification, which uses only numerical data. 
Zenon Gniazdowski, Michal Grabowski
stat.ML