With ordinal and numerical data, there may be multiple groups whose descriptive statistics are being compared to some hypothesized value or to each other.
 | 1 Group In the case of only one group, the sample must be compared to some hypothesized value. |
| 2 Groups Two groups compare the properties of two populations. |
| 3 or More Groups Comparing three samples allows the researcher to determine whether one group is significantly different from the rest. |