What is data?
What is the definition of data? If you ask this question of different professionals in various fields, you will get all kinds of answers. I always ask this at the beginning of my data-related courses, and I always get a wide range of answers. The following are some of the common answers that my students have given when this question was asked:
- Facts and statistics
- Collections of records in databases
- Information
- Facts, figures, or information that's stored in or used by a computer
- Numbers, sounds, and images
- Records and transactions
- Reports
- Things that computers operate on
All of the preceding answers are correct, as the term data in different situations could be used to refer to all of the preceding. So, next time someone says we came to XYZ conclusions after analyzing the data, you know what your first question should be, right? Yes, the next question would be to understand exactly what they mean by "data."
...
