Data and Information Meaning of data Introduction This

Data and Information Meaning of data Introduction This topic will broaden students’ knowledge on the meaning, nature and importance of data and information.

DEFINITION OF DATA AND INFORMATION Data can be defined as raw facts, figures, events, transactions etc. which have been collected, recorded, stored but are not yet processed. Data consists of numbers and characters (that is alphabets and special symbols) which are used to record facts and events. The plural form of datum is data. Information can be defined as data that have been processed and are ready to be used. This means when data are subjected to series of processing operations which convert related groups of data into a meaningful and coherent form.

CHARACTERISTICS OF INFORMATION It must be detailed to ensure effective decision. It must be related to the current situation. It must have an acceptable level of integrity. It must be produced at an optimum cost which must be compatible with the response needs of the systems. It must be easily understood by the users. Information must precise and have an acceptable level of accuracy to the users. Information must be verifiable.

INFORMATION EXPLAINED Types of Information can be grouped majorly into two types which are quantitative and qualitative information. Quantitative information deals with the magnitude of variables, their variability or absolute values. This type of information are objective in nature and can be easily measured using different form of scales. Examples include: prices of goods, annual sales, wage level of staff among others. Qualitative information is related to the attributes or qualities of variables. They are not precise and are very useful in comparative measurement. For example; standard of finished products, colour of products etc.

DATA REPRESENTATION Data are represented in form of characters and numbers. A character is an alphabet or any special symbol while number consist of digits. Data consisting of alphabets and numbers is called an alphanumeric data. Bit is the smallest unit of data in a computer system which include 0 and 1. A Byte is made up of 4 bits. For the American Standard code for Information Interchange (ASCII), a byte is made up of 7 bits while for the Extended Binary coded Decimal Interchange (code), a byte is made up of 8 bits. However in normal practice, a byte is defined as 8 bits i. e. 1 byte = 8 bits. This is the standard definition of a byte. 1000 bytes = 103 bytes = 1 kilobyte (1 KB) 1000 kilobytes = 103 KB = 1 Megabyte (1 MB) 1000 Megabytes = 103 MB = 1 Gigabyte (1 GB) 1000 Gigabytes = 103 GB = 1 Terabyte (1 TB)

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