DATA VERSUS INFORMATION

We have already mentioned that the facts which are put into the computer are called data. Data are raw facts or figures which are arranged in such a way that the computer can accept and process them. When data are put into, or "input" into, the computer, they may not be meaningful by themselves. Once the data have been handled or processed by the computer, they are changed into useful information. This useful information then comes out from, or is "output" by, the computer so that people can use it. This is the purpose of the computer, and of data processing-to process data so that they become useful information.