What is Data and What is Information?

Data and Information... These two are the two of the most used words by Computer Scientists and Geeks. What's the deal with them? Let's see:

Data

Data are plain/raw facts or figures. They are unorganized and meaningless fragments of input given or taken from  a source. An appropriate example is group of names of members in a particular group. When Data is put together in a meaningful fashion, it gives Information.

Information

Information is a group of data, which is arranged in such a way that it conveys a message to the reader.
Lets take the example of the group of names we discussed above. When we arrange this names in a particular order, for instance, when they arranged in alphabetical order, then we can call this Information!


Computer Science deals with the manipulation of data and information. 
Data  is manipulated to give out information, and information is manipulated to give out different results. This conversion/manipulation is called Data Processing. Cool right? Here is a flowchart showing the process of converting data into results. Here, we are taking the example of converting your marks in several subjects to your progress reports, or other results:

Another term related to this and often used by Computer Scientists is Knowledge. Use of information in appropriate situations, is called Knowledge.

That's it for today guys..

Happy Coding! :)