Data Processing Concepts

Data
Data means any collection of raw hand figures facts. Data can be considered as the raw
material of information. The data may be numerical such as payroll, employee Number, etc.
or non-numerical like Student names, Product names, etc.
Data Processing
As data is in its raw form it cannot solve any problem. The data needs some processing to
make it useful. Data processing is the conversion of data into a more useful form. That is,
transmission of data into meaningful information is called data processing.
Information

The result obtained by data processing is called information. That is, the processed data is
known as information. However, information produced in one data processing step may be
used as data in the next data processing step.

 DATA PROCESSING CYCLE

Data Processing is viewed as a system that accepts data as input, processes it into information as output. This can be explained with the help of the following diagram.

 DATA TYPES

The data types may be as follows:
1. Qualitative data: It denotes the characteristics of things such as Average, Fair etc.
2. Quantitative data: It is expressed in terms of measurable quantities such as 10 KG, 40 degree Celsius etc.
3. Numeric Types: The data types may also be an integer (+, -) without any fractional part or
real number which includes integers and fractions.
4. Floating Point Representation: These data types consist of 3 components namely: (1) Mantissa (2) Radix or Base and (3) Exponent
Besides the above, the data types include alphabetic data and alphanumeric data.

 KINDS OF DATA PROCESSING

The important kinds of data processing are as follows:
1. Manual Data Processing: Data is processed without the help of mechanical devices. Here
the data is processed using manual things such as abacus, slide rule, Napier bones etc.

2. Mechanical Data Processing: In Mechanical Data Processing, mechanical devices like calculators, tabulators, etc, are used for processing.
3. Electronic Data Processing: In Electronic Data Processing, the data is processed by either analog or digital computer.