DATA BASICS

What is data and information also discuss different operations performed on data?

 Answer. Data:

 Raw facts and figures are called data. Data is used to perform certain operation in an organization. It gives the status of past activities and enables us to make better decisions It is an input for any system 

 Example: Data may be numerical like inventory figures, test scores etc. Data may be non-numerical like your name and address.

Information:

Processed data is called Information. It is usually output of a process and is meaningful. It can be reproduced again and again easily.

  Example: The grade of a student in a particular subject in a semester precisely gives the complete information of the performance of a student.

Operations:  

Manipulation of data is called operation. In first step, data can be captured from any source. Then operations are performed on that data. After operations data become information • To convert data into information software is used. Example: Addition of two numbers. Perform any type of sorting or searching.

Data processing activities:

 Manipulation of data to achieve required objectives is called data processing Operations carried out on data to convert it into useful information is called data processing Data processing activities can be divided into three categories. 

1. Data capturing 

Data must be given to the computer before processing. 

 Data can be given to the computer in the form of text using keyboard or in some other shape using some other input device.

 2. Data manipulation 

The process to perform various operations on data in order to change its appearance is called data manipulation. Data can be manipulated in the following forms.

Classification

 Classification includes the division of data in the form of different classes or groups. After this division different codes are assigned to the data.

 These codes can be numeric, alphabetic or alphanumeric.

 Example: Students in a college are divided into different sections and the section name is the code of a particular group/class of students.

Calculations 

Data can be calculated arithmetically or logically 

Example: Addition of two numbers to find the total amount or comparing two numbers to find which one is the larger.

 Sorting 

 This involves arrangement of data into a particular sequence to facilitate processing. Arranged data can be in ascending or descending sequence. 

Example: For instance, sorting the banks deposits according to account no will speed up processing. Sorting can also be performed on names as well as numbers. The people attending the aerobics class can be stored alphabetically by last names.

 Summarizing 

A large amount of data can be reduced to a concise, usable form. 

Example: A top management report summarizing a company's accounting data will help to determine its profit performance. Grades of all students in all classes can be summarized by grade point average. It helps to find the list of those students who deserve dean's scholarship.

3. Managing the output results 

Output data can be stored for future use or communicated some where for reproduction. 

Storing and retrieval. 

Data can be stored on some storage device eg disk, magnetic tape or microfilm. This stored data can be used in future as per the requirement.

 Communication and reproduction. 

Data can be communicated to one or more than one destinations at the same time. To communicate or transfer from one place to another a copy of the data is made and then transmitted.