What is data

A data can be defined as a representation of facts, concepts or instructions in a formal way, which must be suitable for communication, interpretation or processing by a human or electronic machine. Data is simply facts or figures, bits of information, but not information itself. Data can be any character, text, word, number, and if not put into context, it means little or nothing to a human.

Within a computer’s storage, data is a collection of numbers represented as bytes that are in turn made up of bits (binary digits) that can have the value one or zero. The data is processed by the CPU, which uses logical operations to produce new data (output) from the source data (input).

What is the data for?

The data is used to collect details about specific variables in an established system, which then allows relevant questions to be answered and results to be evaluated. When data is processed, interpreted, organized, structured, or presented in a data context to make it meaningful or useful, it is called information. The information provides context for the data.

Importance of the data

Data is important because it is one of the main ways that companies can access information that they do not generate themselves. The data allows decision making once processed.

Type of data

Data can be structured or unstructured.

Structured data is ideally represented by a fixed field in a file or record, such as unit price, date, and commission percentage within databases, business systems, and data warehouses.

Unstructured data does not fit in the “neat little box” or data field; common examples include email messages, word processing files, images, and audio or video files.

data example

• Websites collected for a school research paper.
• Characteristics such as gender, age, and marital status, to create insurance rates for an individual.
• Random numbers like 45, 23, 67, 82, 71, to get the average between them.