A subset of a population usually chosen in such a way that it can be taken to represent the population with respect to some characteristic, for example, height, or cost, or gender, or make of car. A list of members of the population of interest is called the sampling frame. If each member of the sample is selected by the equivalent of drawing lots, the sample is a simple random sample or, commonly, a random sample. In this case each sampling unit, i.e. each member of the population, has the same probability of being in the sample, independently of whether any other object is in the sample, and so all possible samples are equally likely. When the sampling units are people, the sample is often referred to as a sample survey. Various modifications of the simple random sample are often used. See cluster sampling; quota sampling; stratified sampling; systematic sampling.