Types of data: numbers and text

Name:

Date:

Class:

Quick Questions

Shade in the A or B circle for each question.

1. Which kind of data is the number of goals a player scored, like 3?

A Text data, because it is a single character

B Numeric data, because you can add and average it

2. Which kind of data is a pet's name, like Biscuit?

A Text data, because it is made of letters

B Numeric data, because it is a name

3. A phone number like 0412 345 678 should be stored as...

A Numeric data

B Text data

4. Which question can you only answer with numeric data?

A What is the average height of our class?

B What is the favourite colour of our class?

5. Which of these is text data?

A Postcode 3000 stored as a label

B Number of books you read: 12

Match the Pairs

Draw a line connecting each item on the left to its match on the right.

Left column		Right column
1age = 11		ANumeric data: a number you can add, subtract or average
2name = "Mia"		Bphone = "0412 345 678"
3A phone number is text data because you never add or average it		Cdays = "2025-03-10" - "2025-03-05"
4A date like 5 March is stored as a date, so you can work out the days between two dates		DPhone numbers are text data, not numeric data, so averaging them is meaningless.
5=SUM(A2:A4) where A2:A4 are "cat", "dog", "fish"		EText data: letters in quote marks that you cannot add up
6average_phone = AVERAGE(0412345678, 0498765432)		FSUM only works on numeric data. Pet names are text, so there is nothing to add up.

Definitions

numeric data vs text data

Fill in the Blanks

Complete each line of code by filling in the missing parts.

Age: 12 This is _______ data we can add up

Phone: "0412 345 678" This is ____ data, not for adding

Scores in B2 to B4 are numbers =___(B2:B4)

Today = 20, Test = 25 Days left = 25 _ 20

Numbers: 4 and 6 Average = (4 + 6) _ 2

Spot the Error

Shade in the letter of the line that contains an error.

Question 1

A age = "11"

B next_age = age + 1

C print(next_age)

Question 2

A price = 4.50

B qty = "three"

C total = price * qty

Question 3

A score1 = 8

B score2 = 9

C name = "Mia"

D total = name + score2

E print(name, total)

Question 4

A name = "Sam"

B phone = 0412345678

C print(name, phone)

Question 5

A date = "12/03/2025"

B year = 2025

C next_year = date + 1

D print(date, next_year)

Answer Key

Types of data: numbers and text

Section A: Quick Questions

B — Numeric data, because you can add and average it

A — Text data, because it is made of letters

B — Text data

A — What is the average height of our class?

A — Postcode 3000 stored as a label

Section B: Match the Pairs

age = 11 → Numeric data: a number you can add, subtract or average

name = "Mia" → Text data: letters in quote marks that you cannot add up

A phone number is text data because you never add or average it → phone = "0412 345 678"

A date like 5 March is stored as a date, so you can work out the days between two dates → days = "2025-03-10" - "2025-03-05"

=SUM(A2:A4) where A2:A4 are "cat", "dog", "fish" → SUM only works on numeric data. Pet names are text, so there is nothing to add up.

average_phone = AVERAGE(0412345678, 0498765432) → Phone numbers are text data, not numeric data, so averaging them is meaningless.

Section C: Definitions

numeric data vs text data — Numeric data is numbers you can calculate with, like 12 or 3.5. Text data is words and characters, like cat or a phone number, which you never add up or average.

Section D: Fill in the Blanks

Age: 12
This is numeric data we can add up

Phone: "0412 345 678"
This is text data, not for adding

Scores in B2 to B4 are numbers
=SUM(B2:B4)

Today = 20, Test = 25
Days left = 25 - 20

Numbers: 4 and 6
Average = (4 + 6) / 2

Section E: Spot the Error

A — Quote marks turn 11 into text data, so the computer can't add 1 to it. Age is numeric data and should be written as age = 11.

B — The word "three" is text, so it can't be multiplied by the price. The quantity is numeric data and should be qty = 3.

D — name is text data, so you can't add it to a number. The total should add the two numeric scores: total = score1 + score2.

B — A phone number is text data because you never calculate with it. As a number it would lose its leading 0. It should be phone = "0412345678".

C — A date written like 12/03/2025 is text, so you can't add 1 to it. The year 2025 is a number, so next_year = year + 1 works.