Explain The Difference Between Data And Information Essay

1019 Words Jul 19th, 2015 null Page
1. Explain the difference between data and information. Give examples of raw data and information.
“Data is raw facts, or facts that have not yet been processed to reveal their meaning to the end user” (Coronel & Morris, 2015). It is a building block.
Example: Data inserted into a form and then saved represents raw data in the DBMS. This is illustrated in Figure 1.1 b. below (Coronel & Morris, 2015). However, these raw data are not beneficial to anyone. There is not a complete story. An individual reads the rows of data for faculty members, but it is unclear what it all means.
In contrast, information is the outcome of processing raw data to divulge its meaning. “Information consists of transformed data and facilitates decision making” (Coronel & Morris, 2015). Information gives meaning and context. Moreover, the data is coalesced, categorized, organized, and evaluated to generate information to aid managers to formulate and operate a business (Whitten & Bentley, 2007).
Example: Information is ascertained by transforming raw data into a data summary represented in Fig. 1.1 c below. Now answers to questions can be determined. For example, “What percentage of the faculty is the Information Systems (INFS) department are adjuncts?” Hence, the answer is 20% (Coronel & Morris, 2015). Another example of raw data is a list of random medical equipment and surgical tools. However, when the list of medical equipment is combined with a patient’s name, details, medical history, a…

Related Documents