A data set is a collection of values that provides information. These values can be presented in various ways such as in numbers or categories. The values are typically gathered through measurements, surveys, or experiments. Consider a data set that consists of the heights of a group of actors.

Actor	Height
Madzia	$5\text{ ft}$ $4\text{ in.}$
Magda	$5\text{ ft}$ $2\text{ in.}$
Ignacio	$6\text{ ft}$ $1.6\text{ in.}$
Henrik	$5\text{ ft}$ $10\text{ in.}$
Ali	$6\text{ ft}$ $1\text{ in.}$
Diego	$5\text{ ft}$ $2\text{ in.}$
Miłosz	$5\text{ ft}$ $2\text{ in.}$
Paulina	$5\text{ ft}$ $3\text{ in.}$
Aybuke	$5\text{ ft}$ $7\text{ in.}$
Mateusz	$6\text{ ft}$ $1.2\text{ in.}$
Gamze	$5\text{ ft}$ $3\text{ in.}$
Marcin	$5\text{ ft}$ $7\text{ in.}$
Marcial	$5\text{ ft}$ $8\text{ in.}$
Heichi	$5\text{ ft}$ $5\text{ in.}$
Arkadiusz	$5\text{ ft}$ $6\text{ in.}$
Enrique	$5\text{ ft}$ $10.5\text{ in.}$
Aleksandra	$5\text{ ft}$ $4\text{ in.}$
Mateusz	$5\text{ ft}$ $9\text{ in.}$
Jordan	$5\text{ ft}$ $5\text{ in.}$
Paula	$5\text{ ft}$ $2\text{ in.}$
MacKenzie	$5\text{ ft}$ $6\text{ in.}$
Joe	$6\text{ ft}$ $1\text{ in.}$
Flavio	$5\text{ ft}$ $10\text{ in.}$
Jeremy	$5\text{ ft}$ $4\text{ in.}$
Umut	$6\text{ ft}$ $1\text{ in.}$

A single value in a data set, such as an individual actor's height, is called an observation or data point. In this table, each observation corresponds to the height of an actor — meaning that there are $24$ observations. Each observation contains two variables, the actor's name and height. The actual number or category associated with each data point is called a data value. Data values are the specific pieces of information contained within a data point. Data sets can be represented using charts, tables, or different types of graphs. For example, the average temperature of a city for each month of $2018$ can be plotted on a line graph.