For being such a simple word, data is quite a complicated topic. Like "love" or "news."

There is structured and unstructured data. Then you have qualitative and quantitative data. Now let's explore two more data types (discrete and continuous) and help you understand the difference.

When looking at a set of numbers, they're typically discrete (countable) variables or continuous (measurable) variables. How you study this data should differ based on which group it falls into. This will certainly affect how it's measured as well.

The more you understand these unique data types, the more you identify opportunities where each might come in handy. You can leverage this information to benefit your brand, whether you're a data scientist, data analyst, data engineer, or just a fan of numbers.

Organizations use statistical analysis software to uncover insights from both types of data and simplify complex data analysis.