Word to describe set of 'Absolute' and 'Relative'

Question

A pretty straight-forward question, but I'm totally unaware of the answer (unless I'm missing something horribly obvious). Is there a word that describes the set of these two words, where the definitions of these two words are as follows:

• Absolute: without relation to any other thing
• Relative: in relation to other things

To clarify what I'm asking, I'm doing a bit of programming where an object will contain a numeric value, and a property on that object will contain a value indicating the nature* of the aforementioned value, either absolute or relative. Now, the name of the latter property is totally arbitrary, but it's bothering me that I don't know what it should be called and I'd like to know what other people have to say on the matter.

Now, although this question arose from a programming problem, it does not pertain to programming specifically. In this case it actually refers to positioning in space, so I'm looking for a more general answer to the question.

*Maybe Nature is a suitable answer? :)

Answer 1

Frame of reference

1.A set of criteria or stated values in relation to which measurements or judgements can be made.
‘the observer interprets what he sees in terms of his own cultural frame of reference’

1.1 A system of geometric axes in relation to which measurements of size, position, or motion can be made.
Oxford Living Dictionaries

With respect to the first example sentence given ("his own cultural frame of reference"), this is related to moral or cultural relativism/absolutism.

In the second mathematical definition it means that measurements can be taken from different points of reference, for example, absolute and relative coordinates. If you have a square on a screen it may begin at coordinates (200, 200), but another square inside that square might have absolute coordinates of (300, 300) but relative coordinates of (100, 100), relative to its parent square.

Answer 2

Absolute and relative values are different because they have different origin. So what you're probably looking for is "origin type" or "origin kind". This answer suggests that "kind" is better suited in this case.

Answer 3

The word disposition is synonymous with arrangement, and thus can be used to mean how something is arranged.^{Merriam-Webster} It seems to fit well with your desire to indicate something is either absolute or relative.

Answer 4

this question is a couple years old, but i have the exact same question. I am looking for an appropriate variable name that will contain the values 'absolute' or 'relative'. After seeing the preferred answer by the OP, i googled for synonyms to disposition and came up with 'reference'. so i am going with the variable name 'referenceType'

Answer 5

"Position." For example, it's used in CSS as follows:

position: relative;
position: absolute;
position: fixed;
position: static;

Alternatively, you could say "positioning" if you think that's more accurate or descriptive.