Data (computing)
In computing, data (/ˈdeɪtə/ day-tə, /ˈdætə/ da-tə, or /ˈdɑːtə/ dah-tə; treated as singular, plural, or as a mass noun) is any sequence of symbols giving meaning by specific acts of interpretation.
For more general usage of the term, see Data.
Contents
[hide]Digital data
Digital data is the quantities, characters, or symbols on which operations are performed by a computer, stored and recorded on magnetic, optical, or mechanical recording media, and transmitted in the form of electrical signals.
Computer program
A computer program is a set of data that consists of a series of coded software instructions to control the operation of a computer or other machine.
Physical computer memory elements consist of an address and a byte/word of data storage. Digital data are often stored in relational databases, like tables or SQL databases, and can generally be represented as abstract key/value pairs.
Data structures
Data can be organized in many different types of Data structure|data structures]], including:
Data structures can store data of many different types, including:
Peripherals devices
Data pass in and out of computers via peripheral devices.
Other uses of the term data
In an alternate usage, binary files (which are not human-readable) are sometimes called "data" as distinguished from human-readable "text".
See also
- Attribute–value pair
- Computer data storage
- Computer science
- Computation
- Computing
- Data - general usage
- Data analysis
- Database
- Data ecosystem
- Data stream
- Data structure
- Data transmission
- Data type
- Floating point
- Information
- Name binding
- Relational database
External links
- Data (computing) @ Wikipedia
