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Data (computing)
 
 
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In computer science
Computer science

Computer science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation, and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems....
, data is anything in a form suitable for use with a computer
Computer

A computer is a machine that manipulates Data according to a list of Code .The first devices that resemble modern computers date to the mid-20th century , although the computer concept and various machines similar to computers existed earlier....
. Data is often distinguished from program
Computer program

Computer programs are Instruction for a computer. A computer requires programs to function. Moreover, a computer program does not run unless its instructions are executed by a Central processing unit; however, a program may communicate an Algorithm#Formalization of algorithms to people without running....
s. A program is a set of instructions
Instruction (computer science)

In computer science, an instruction is a single operation of a central processing unit defined by an instruction set architecture. In a broader sense, an "instruction" may be any representation of an element of an executable program, such as a bytecode....
 that detail a task for the computer to perform. In this sense, data is thus everything that is not program code.

In an alternate usage, binary file
Binary file

A binary file is a computer file which may contain any type of data, encoded in Binary numeral system form for computer storage and processing purposes; for example, Document file format containing formatted text....
s (which are not human-readable
Human-readable

The term "human-readable" refers to a representation of data that can be naturally Reading by humans. In most contexts, the alternative representation is a machine-readable format or medium of data primarily designed for reading by electronic, mechanical or optical devices, or computers....
) are sometimes called "data" as distinguished from human-readable "text
Text file

A text file is a kind of computer file that is structured as a sequence of line . A text file exists within a computer file system. The end of a text file is often denoted by placing one or more special characters, known as an end-of-file marker, after the last line in a text file....
". The total amount of digital data in 2007 was estimated to be 281 billion gigabytes.
amentally, computers follow the instructions they are given.






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In computer science
Computer science

Computer science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation, and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems....
, data is anything in a form suitable for use with a computer
Computer

A computer is a machine that manipulates Data according to a list of Code .The first devices that resemble modern computers date to the mid-20th century , although the computer concept and various machines similar to computers existed earlier....
. Data is often distinguished from program
Computer program

Computer programs are Instruction for a computer. A computer requires programs to function. Moreover, a computer program does not run unless its instructions are executed by a Central processing unit; however, a program may communicate an Algorithm#Formalization of algorithms to people without running....
s. A program is a set of instructions
Instruction (computer science)

In computer science, an instruction is a single operation of a central processing unit defined by an instruction set architecture. In a broader sense, an "instruction" may be any representation of an element of an executable program, such as a bytecode....
 that detail a task for the computer to perform. In this sense, data is thus everything that is not program code.

In an alternate usage, binary file
Binary file

A binary file is a computer file which may contain any type of data, encoded in Binary numeral system form for computer storage and processing purposes; for example, Document file format containing formatted text....
s (which are not human-readable
Human-readable

The term "human-readable" refers to a representation of data that can be naturally Reading by humans. In most contexts, the alternative representation is a machine-readable format or medium of data primarily designed for reading by electronic, mechanical or optical devices, or computers....
) are sometimes called "data" as distinguished from human-readable "text
Text file

A text file is a kind of computer file that is structured as a sequence of line . A text file exists within a computer file system. The end of a text file is often denoted by placing one or more special characters, known as an end-of-file marker, after the last line in a text file....
". The total amount of digital data in 2007 was estimated to be 281 billion gigabytes.

Data vs programs

Fundamentally, computers follow the instructions they are given. A set of instructions to perform a given task (or tasks) is called a "program
Computer program

Computer programs are Instruction for a computer. A computer requires programs to function. Moreover, a computer program does not run unless its instructions are executed by a Central processing unit; however, a program may communicate an Algorithm#Formalization of algorithms to people without running....
". In the nominal case, the program, as executed
Execution (computers)

Execution in computer engineering and software engineering is the Process by which a computer or a virtual machine carries out the instructions of a computer program....
 by the computer, will consist of binary
Binary file

A binary file is a computer file which may contain any type of data, encoded in Binary numeral system form for computer storage and processing purposes; for example, Document file format containing formatted text....
 machine code
Machine code

Machine code or machine language is a system of instructions and data executed directly by a computer's central processing unit. Machine code may be regarded as a primitive programming language or as the lowest-level representation of a compiled and/or assembly language computer program....
. The elements of storage
Computer storage

Computer data storage, often called storage or memory, refers to computer components, devices, and recording medium that retain digital data used for computing for some interval of time....
 manipulated by the program, but not actually executed by the CPU
Central processing unit

A central processing unit is an electronic circuit that can execute computer programs. This broad definition can easily be applied to many early computers that existed long before the term "CPU" ever came into widespread usage....
, contain data.

Typically, different file
Computer file

A computer file is a block of arbitrary information, or resource for storing information, which is available to a computer program and is usually based on some kind of durable computer storage....
s are used to store programs vs data. Executable file
Executable

In computing, an executable causes a computer "to perform indicated tasks according to encoded instruction ," as opposed to a file that only contains data ....
s contain programs; all other files are data file
Data file

A data file is a computer file which stores data for use by a computer Application software or System software. It generally does not refer to files that contain instructions or code to be executed , or to files which define the operation or structure of an application or system ; but specifically to information used as input, and/or wri...
s. However, executable files may also contain data which is "built-in" to the program. In particular, some executable files have a data segment
Data segment

A data segment is one of the sections of a program in an object file or in memory, which contains the global variables that are initialized by the programmer....
, which nominally contains constants and initial values (both data).

For example: A user
User (computing)

In computing, a user is a person who uses a computer or Internet service. A user may have a user account that identifies the user by a username , screenname , or "handle", which is derived from the identical Citizen's Band radio term....
 might first instruct the operating system
Operating system

An operating system is an interface between hardware and applications; it is responsible for the management and coordination of activities and the sharing of the limited resources of the computer....
 to load a word processor
Word processor

A word processor is a computer Application software used for the production of any sort of printable material.Word processor may also refer to an obsolete type of stand-alone office machine, popular in the 1970s and 80s, combining the keyboard text-entry and printing functions of an electric typewriter with a dedicated computer for th...
 program from one file, and then edit a document
Document file format

A document file format is a Text file or Binary file computer file format for storing documents on a computer storage, especially for use by computers....
 stored in another file. In this example, the document would be considered data. If the word processor also features a spell checker
Spell checker

In computing, a spell checker is an application software that flags words in a document that may not be spelling correctly. Spell checkers may be stand-alone capable of operating on a block of text, or as part of a larger application, such as a word processor, email client, electronic dictionary, or search engine....
, then the dictionary (word list) for the spell checker would also be considered data. The algorithm
Algorithm

In mathematics, computing, linguistics and related subjects, an algorithm is a sequence of finite instructions, often used for calculation and data processing....
s used by the spell checker to suggest corrections would be considered code.

The line between program and data can become blurry. An interpreter
Interpreter (computing)

In computer science, an interpreter normally means a computer program that execution , i.e. performs, instructions written in a programming language....
, for example, is a program. The input
Input

Input is the term denote either an entrance or changes which are inserted into a system and which activate/modify a process. It is an abstract concept, used in the model ing, system design and system exploitation....
 data to an interpreter is itself a program—just not one expressed in native machine language. In many cases, the interpreted program will be a human-readable text file
Text file

A text file is a kind of computer file that is structured as a sequence of line . A text file exists within a computer file system. The end of a text file is often denoted by placing one or more special characters, known as an end-of-file marker, after the last line in a text file....
, which is manipulated with a text editor
Text editor

A text editor is a type of software application used for editing plain text files.Text editors are often provided with operating systems or software development packages, and can be used to change configuration files and programming language source code....
—more normally associated with plain text
Plain text

In computing, plain text is a term used for an ordinary "unformatted" sequential file readable as textual material without much processing.The Character encoding has traditionally been either ASCII, one of its many derivatives such as ISO/IEC 646 etc., or sometimes EBCDIC....
 data.

See also

  • Data
    DATA

    Debt, AIDS, Trade in Africa is a multinational Non-governmental organization founded in January 2002 in London by U2's Bono along with Robert Sargent Shriver III and activists from the Jubilee 2000 Drop the Debt campaign....
  • Data (disambiguation)
    Data (disambiguation)

    Data consist of propositions that reflect reality, such as measurements or observations of a variable.Data may also refer to:* Data , in computer science, often distinguished from code or software...
  • Data segment
    Data segment

    A data segment is one of the sections of a program in an object file or in memory, which contains the global variables that are initialized by the programmer....
  • Data type
    Data type

    A data type in programming languages is an attribute of a data which tells the computer something about the kind of data it is. This involves setting constraints on the datum, such as what values it can take and what operations may be performed upon it....