For example, there are three distinct compounds with the molecular formula :
The first two isomers shown of   are propanols, that is, alcohols derived from propane.  Both have a chain of three carbon atoms connected by single bonds, with the remaining carbon valences being filled by seven hydrogen atoms and by a hydroxyl group  comprising the oxygen atom bound to a hydrogen atom. These two isomers differ on which carbon the hydroxyl is bound to: either to an extremity of the carbon chain propan-1-ol (1-propanol, n-propyl alcohol, n-propanol; I) or to the middle carbon propan-2-ol (2-propanol, isopropyl alcohol, isopropanol; II). These can be described by the condensed structural formulas  and .
The third isomer of  is the ether methoxyethane (ethyl-methyl-ether; III). Unlike the other two, it has the oxygen atom connected to two carbons, and all eight hydrogens bonded directly to carbons. It can be described by the condensed formula .
The alcohol "3-propanol" is not another isomer, since the difference between it and 1-propanol is not real; it is only the result of an arbitrary choice in the direction of numbering the carbons along the chain.  For the same reason, "ethoxymethane" is the same molecule as methoxyethane, not another isomer.
1-Propanol and 2-propanol are examples of positional isomers, which differ by the position at which certain features, such as double bonds or functional groups, occur on a "parent" molecule (propane, in that case).