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Data processing is any
computer Process (general) that converts data into information or
knowledge. The processing is usually assumed to be automated and running on a
computer. Because data are most useful when well-presented and actually
informative, data-processing systems are often referred to as
information systems to emphasize their practicality. Nevertheless, both terms are roughly synonymous, performing similar conversions; data-processing systems typically manipulate raw data into information, and likewise information systems typically take raw data as input to produce information as output.
To better market their profession, a computer programmer or a systems analyst that might once have referred, such as during the 1970s, to the computer systems that they produce as data-processing systems more often than not nowadays refers to the computer systems that they produce by some other term that includes the word information, such as information systems, information technology systems, or
management information systems.
In the context of data processing,
data are defined as
numbers or character (computing) that represent
measurements from observable phenomena. A single
datum is a single measurement from observable phenomena. Measured information is then algorithmically derived and/or logically deduced and/or statistically calculated from multiple data. (
evidence). Information is defined as either a meaningful answer to a query or a meaningful stimulus that can cascade into further queries.
More generally, the term
data processing can apply to any process that converts data from one format to another, although
data conversion would be the more logical and correct term. From this perspective, data processing becomes the process of converting information into data and also the converting of data back into information. The distinction is that conversion doesn't require a question (query) to be answered. For example,
information in the form of a string of characters forming a sentence in English is converted or
encoded from a keyboard's key-presses as represented by hardware-oriented codes into
ASCII codes after which it may be more easily processed by a computer—not as merely raw, amorphous data, but as a meaningful character in a
natural language's set of
graphemes—and finally converted or decoded to be displayed as characters, represented by a
font on the computer display. In that example we can see the stage-by-stage conversion of the presence of and then absence of
electrical conductivity in the key-press and subsequent release at the keyboard from raw substantially-meaningless hardware-oriented data to evermore-meaningful information as the processing proceeds toward the human being.
Conversely, that simple example for pedagogical purposes here is usually described as an
embedded system (for the software resident in the keyboard itself) or as (operating-)
systems programming, because the information is derived from a hardware interface and may involve overt control of the hardware through that interface by an operating system. Typically control of hardware by a device driver manipulating ASIC or
FPGA registers is not viewed as part of data processing proper or information systems proper, but rather as the domain of embedded systems or (operating-)
systems programming. Instead, perhaps a more conventional example of the established practice of using the term
data processing is that a business has collected numerous data concerning an aspect of its operations and that this multitude of data must be presented in meaningful, easy-to-access presentations for the managers who must then use that information to increase revenue or to decrease cost. That conversion and presentation of data as information is typically performed by a data-processing
software application.
When the domain from which the data are harvested is a science or an engineering, data processing and information systems are considered too broad of terms and the more specialized term
data analysis is typically used, focusing on the highly-specialized and highly-accurate algorithmic derivations and statistical calculations that are less often observed in the typical general business environment. This divergence of culture is exhibited in the typical numerical representations used in data processing versus numerical; data processing's measurements are typically represented by integers or by fixed-point or
binary-coded decimal representations of numbers whereas the majority of data analysis's measurements are often represented by floating-point representation of rational numbers.
Practically all naturally occurring processes can be viewed as examples of
data processing systems where "observable" information in the form of pressure,
light, etc. are converted by human observations into electrical signals in the
nervous system as the
senses we recognize as somatosensory system,
sound, and
Visual perception. Even the interaction of non-living systems may be viewed in this way as rudimentary
information processing systems. Conventional usage of the terms
data processing and
information systems restricts their use to refer to the algorithmic derivations, logical deductions, and statistical calculations that recur perennially in general business environments, rather than in the more expansive sense of all conversions of real-world measurements into real-world information in, say, an organic biological system or even a scientific or engineering system.
See also
Further reading
- Linda B., Bourque, Linda B., Bourgue, Virginia A., Clark, Processing Data: The Survey Example (Quantitative Applications in the Social Sciences), Sage Publications, Inc. (December 14, 2006), ISBN 0803947410
Data Processing by The Data Processing Company
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Data Processing Company - Information Security
The Data Processing Company, data processing, NCOA, data processing for mailings, consumer data processing
data processing from FOLDOC
data processing < application > The input, verification, organisation, storage, retrieval, transformation, and extraction of information from data.
Electronic Data Processing from FOLDOC
Electronic Data Processing < application > (EDP) data processing by electronic machines, i.e. computers. (1995-03-30) Try this search on Wikipedia, OneLook, Google
EDP ::: Welcome to the Electronic Data Processing Group :::
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Data processing
Before mailing takes place, we can also help you with a data health check of your mailing lists. ... We were keen to bring this all under one roof, from content management to page ...
Data processing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Data processing (DP) is any computer process that converts data into information or knowledge. [1] The processing is usually assumed to be automated and running on a computer.
Framework Data Processing Bureau
Data processing, preparation, statistical consultancy and sample provision. Company overview and details of services.
Data Processing - Tideway School
Tideway School Specialist technology College east sussex schools ... Fair Processing Notice - School Census 2008. Tideway School processes personal data about its pupils and is a ...
Data Processing - Response One
High standards at every stage. Data is at the heart of everything we do. From our automated email validation system that checks data integrity, to our project-end checking routines ...