Types of data

Type of Data
In general, data is any set of characters that has been gathered and translated for some purpose, It can be any character, including text and numbers, pictures, sound, or video. Computers represent these formats of data in either 0's or 1's, which is known as binary values. A bit is considered as the smallest unit of data, and represents just a single value. A collection of eight bits is called a byte.

Qualitative data is information about qualities; information that can't actually be measured.Qualitative data arise when the observations fall into separate distinct categories.
 * Nominal - there is no natural order between the categories. Nominal scales are used for labeling variables, without any quantitative value.  “Nominal” data could simply be called “labels” where data is used for labeling variables, without any quantitative value. Nominal data provide some information about a group or set of events.For an example, Eye color of an animal.
 * Ordinal - If an ordering exists. Ordinal data has a certain order or numbers that are not mathematically measured or determined but are merely assigned as labels for opinions.

Quantitative data is information about quantities; that is, information that can be measured and written down with numbers. Numerical data arise when the observations are counts or measurements.
 * Discrete - If the measurements are integers (e.g. number of people in a household)
 * Continuous - If the measurements can take on any value, usually with some range (e.g. weight)