Data and Information

Data and Information

We all know what a computer is? It is an electronic device that processes the input according to the set of instructions provided to it and gives the desired output at a very fast rate. Computers are very versatile as they do a lot of different tasks such as storing data, weather forecasting, booking airlines, railway or movie tickets

Data: Data is defined as an un-processed collection of raw facts, suitable for communication, interpretation or processing.

For example, 134, 16 ‘Kavitha’, ‘C’ are data. This will not give any meaningful message.

Information: Information is a collection of facts from which conclusions may be drawn. In simple words we can say that data is the raw facts that is processed to give meaningful, ordered or structured information. For example Kavitha is 16 years old. This information is about Kavitha and conveys some meaning. This conversion of data into information is called data processing.

“A Computer is an electronic device that takes raw data (unprocessed) as an input from the user and processes it under the control of a set of instructions (called program), produces a result (output), and saves it for future use.”

Computer - man or machine?

Before 19^th century, the term “Computer” was referred to humans who performed calculations using Abacus and Slide Rule and not to machine . 

The term “computer” is derived from the word “compute” which means to calculate. The person who performs calculation is called as Computer. This term was later given to mechanical device as they began replacing the human computers. 

Today's computers are electronic devices that accept data as input, process it, produce output and stores it for future reference.