Data (computing)
Data can be metadata, or data that is about other data. It can be suggested, or it can be given. Data relating to actual events usually has the time recorded as metadata. Computers follow commands given to them as data, and those commands are called programs. A program is a list of commands that control the computer, and which it does. When the program is acted on by the computer, it consists of code. The storage used by the program, but not acted on by the central processing unit (CPU) are data. A single datum is a value stored inside of the computer. Files containing only binary are sometimes called data, so as to point out the difference between these files and readable text. The amount of digital data was guessed to be 281 exabytes in 2008.