To know what ways you can organize your data, you need to know about the type of data that you have. There are a handful of different ways to talk about your data, so let’s pick out at random.

The two major categories are qualitative/categorical and quantitative/numeric. Categorical fall into discrete categories (of course), of which there are only a certain number. Quantitative, on the other hand, are numeric, and there could in theory be an infinite number of them.

Name Category Description Example
Nominal Categorical Distinct, unordered categories Chevy, Toyota, Honda
Ordinal Categorical Distinct categories, but ordered Poor, middle-class, wealthy
Discrete Quantitative Integers only Number of people in a household
Continuous Quantitative Can take on any value Weight

Bertin generally thinks of them as nominal, ordinal and quantitative, though, so you might stick to that instead.