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For other senses of this word, see data (disambiguation).

Data is the plural of datum. A datum is a statement accepted at face value (a "given"). A large class of practically important statements are measurements or observations of a variable. Such statements may comprise numbers, words, or images.

1 Etymology
2 Usage in English
3 Uses of data in computing
4 Meaning of data, information and knowledge
5 See also
6 References

Etymology

The word data is the plural of Latin datum, neuter past participle of dare, "to give", hence "something given". The past participle of "to give" has been used for millennia, in the sense of a statement accepted at face value; one of the works of Euclid, circa 300 BC, was the Dedomena (in Latin, Data). In discussions of problems in geometry, mathematics, engineering, and so on, the terms givens and data are used interchangeably. Such usage is the origin of data as a concept in computer science: data are numbers, words, images, etc., accepted as they stand.

Usage in English

In English, the word datum is still used in the general sense of "something given", and more specifically in cartography, geography, geology, and drafting to mean a reference point, reference line, or reference surface. The Latin plural data is also used as a plural in English, but it is also commonly treated as a mass noun and used in the singular. For example, "This is all the data from the experiment". This usage is inconsistent with the rules of Latin grammar, which would suggest, "These are the data ..."; each measurement or result is a single datum. However, given the variety and irregularity of English plural constructions, there seem to be no grounds for arguing that data is incorrect as a singular mass noun in English.

Uses of data in computing

Main article: Data (computing)

Raw data are numbers, characters, images or other outputs from devices to convert physical quantities into symbols, in a very broad sense. Such data are typically further processed by a human or input into a computer, stored and processed there, or transmitted (output) to another human or computer. Raw data is a relative term; data processing commonly occurs by stages, and the "processed data" from one stage may be considered the "raw data" of the next.

Mechanical computing devices are classified according to the means by which they represent data. An analog computer represents a datum as a voltage, distance, position, or other physical quantity. A digital computer represents a datum as a sequence of symbols drawn from a fixed alphabet. The most common digital computers use a binary alphabet, that is, an alphabet of two characters, typically denoted "0" and "1". More familiar representations, such as numbers or letters, are then constructed from the binary alphabet.

Some special forms of data are distinguished. A computer program is a collection of data, which can be interpreted as instructions. Most computer languages make a distinction between programs and the other data on which programs operate, but in some languages, notably Lisp and similar languages, programs are essentially indistinguishable from other data. It is also useful to distinguish metadata, that is, a description of other data. A similar, earlier term for metadata is "ancillary data." The prototypical example of metadata is the library catalog, which is a description of the contents of books.

Meaning of data, information and knowledge

The terms information and knowledge are frequently used for overlapping concepts. These three concepts are ill or ambiguously defined in the subject matter literature . However, In recent interdisciplinary research a few independent specializations of these terms have been proposed.

See Information: Information is not data for the commonly made distinction between information and data.

References

This article was originally based on material from the Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, which is licensed under the GFDL.

http://www.answers.com/topic/data - discussion of the correctness of using data as a singular or plural ("data is" or "data are")

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