Computer Data and Information

Back to: COMPUTER SCIENCE SS1

 

Welcome to class!

In today’s class, we will be talking about computer data and information. Enjoy the class!

Computer Data and Information

Data

Computer Data can be defined as the representations of facts, concepts or instructions in a formalized manner that are suitable for communication, interpretation and processing by human/electronic machine. As you should already know, a computer is an information processing machine. In this vein, therefore, computers process data to produce information.

Data processing cycle

Data processing involves the re-structuring or re-ordering of data by people or machine, to increase their usefulness and add values for a particular purpose. Data processing consists of basic steps input, processing and output. The diagram below illustrates the three steps that constitute the data processing cycle-

• Input: In this step, the input data is prepared in some convenient form for processing. The form will depend on the processing machine. For example, when electronic computers are used, the input data could be recorded on any one of several types of input medium, such as magnetic disks, tapes and so on.

• Processing: In this step input data is changed to produce data in a more useful form. For example, pay-checks may be calculated from the time cards, or a summary of sales for the month may be calculated from the sales orders.
• Output: Here the result of the proceeding processing step are collected. The particular form of the output data depends on the use of the data. For example, output data may be pay-checks for employees.

Information

Information is organised or classified data which has some meaningful values for the receiver. Information is the processed data on which decisions and actions are based. Note that for decision-meaningful to be meaningful and worthwhile, the processed data which inform decisions must qualify for the following characteristics:

• Timely: Information should be available when required.
• Accuracy: Information should be accurate.
• Completeness: Information should be complete

Difference between data and information

Data: Data is raw, unorganized facts that need to be processed. Data can be something simple and seemingly random and useless until it is organized. For example, every student’s after a WASSCE exam score is one piece of data.

Information: When data is processed, organized, structured or presented in a given context to make it useful, it is called information. For example, the average score of a class or the entire school (which can be derived from a given data such the one cited above), is information.

Evaluation

1. Computers process data to produce
   (a) data (b) calculations (c) information (d) process
2. The representations of facts, concepts or instructions in a formalized manner that are suitable for communication, interpretation and processing by human/electronic machine is (a) computer data (b) computer information                   (c) computer system (d) computer nature
3. Data processing involves the re-structuring or re-ordering of ___ by people or machine (a) data (b) information (c) nature (d) system
4. Data processing consists of these three basic steps input, processing and ____
   (a) data (b) infusion (c) output (d) locking
5. ______ is organized or classified data which has some meaningful values for the receiver (a) output (b) data (c) information (d) lock

 

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