Basic Concepts - Difference between data and information

‘Data’ refers to a value or set of values. These values may represent some abbreviations from an experiment, some figures collected during some survey, marks obtained by a student in an examination etc. Thus data is a collection of raw data from which no conclusion can be drawn and therefore it is not useful for decision making.

On the other hand, when the data is processed by applying certain rules, new generated data is called ‘Information’. Thus information is processed form of data. The information has some meaning and can be used for decision making. E.g. Suppose we collect the data of 10000 persons of a city. When we organize this data after applying certain rules, like divide the data on the basis of gender, it becomes information and we can find out results on the basis of it. But without processing data, it is not possible.

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