Data structure
Context is critically important, but the statistical methods that can be used on data depend mostly on the internal structure of the data.
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These three data sets have the same basic structure, so the same statistical methods can be applied to all of them.
Variables and 'individuals'
Most data sets have a fairly simple structure. One or more measurements ('variables') are recorded from each of a collection of 'individuals' (also called 'cases' or 'units'). The data can be presented in a data matrix.