What is Data Processing ? Difference between Data and Information ?

The activity of processing data using a computer is called Data Processing System .

Data is raw material used as input and nformaion 1s processed data obtained as Dutput of data processing. Being a data processing system, computer has importance in providing in-denth knowledge of whatever is involved in procesSing the data. But betfore looking into that We require to define some of the basic terms associated with it.

Input:-

Input refers to the data and instructions given to the computer. Data is a raw set of facts and figures associated with an individual, an entity, or an event. It is basically a collection of unorganized facts or concepts that does not convey any meaning. Data can be represented in various forms i.e. in figures, characters, symbols, pictures, audio, video etc.

Some examples of data are phone numbers, weights, prices, costs, addresses, product name, age or name of a person etc.

NEED OF INFORMATION:-

Information is necessary for the people of the modern world because without pro, r information, it is very difficult to survive in the modern competitive world. Information is needed .

To gain knowledge about the surroundings, and whatever is happening in the society and universe
To keep the system up-to-date, we need to gather information from various sources like newspaper, radio, magazines, televisions, internet etc.
To know about the rules and regulations of society. government and associations etc.
To arrive at a particular decision that helps in torming, running and protectina system.

Difference between DATA and INFORMATION ?

Data:-

Data is raw fact and figures. For example: 32 is data.
Data is not significant to a business.
Data does not help in decision making .
Observations and recordings are done to obtain data .
Input to any system may be treated as data .
Difficult to understand properly.
Data must be processed to understand.
Data may not be in the order.

Information:-

Information is a processed form of data. For example: Age 32.
Information is significant to a business.
Information helps in decision making.
Analysis is done to obtain information.
Output system Information.
Easy to understand.
Information is already in understandable form. it may be processed further to make it more understandable.
Information should be in the order.

INTRODUCTION TO DATABASE:-

Data is a very important resource in the operation and management of an organization. So, it is very essential to organize the data in a meaningful manner, because an unorganized data has no meaning. With the increased demand of the data in the various organizations such as banks, universities, railways, airlines, companies etc., it becomes a necessity to store data in an organized manner so that it can be used again and again. So, we need a database to store the data in an organized form.

To understand the concept of database, let us consider an example of telephone directory in which names of people are arranged in an alphabetical order. So, it becomes easier to search any phone number corresponding to a particular name. If this ordering is not done in n organized manner then it is very difficult to scarch a phone number of a particular person, so this shows why database are needed.

DATABASE OPERATIONS:-

To maintain huge databases, we need certain operations which help in maintaining the data in the database efficiently. The most commonly used operations performed on the databases are:-

(a) Insertion: To add new data into the database. (For example: To add new phone number into the telephone directory.)

(b) Selection: To view or retrieve the stored data. (For example: To view a telephone number of a particular person from the telephone directory.)

(c) Updation: To modify or edit the existing data. (For example: Suppose the phone number of a particular person is changed, so we have to modify the telephone directory by replacing his old phone number with a new phone number.)

(d) Deletion: To remove or delete the existing data from the database. (For example: Suppose an employee has left the organization, so his record should be deleted from the employee database of the organization.)

(e) Sorting: To arrange the data in a desired order (ascending / descending). (For example: In employee database of an organization, records should be aranged in an alphabetical order for easy and fast retrieval.)

DATABASE APPLICATIONS:-

The collection of data, usually referred to as the database, contains information relevant O an enterprise. Today, database systems are widely used to manage large bodies or information. Some of the important database applications are:-

Banking: For customer information, aceounts, and loans. and banking trane .
Universities: and grades For student infomation, course registrations, results and grad .
Airlines: For rvations and schedule information. Airlines inals were situated among around the use databases in a geographically distributed manner-termina situated around the world acressed the central database system through phone lines and networks.
Credit card transact For purchases on credit cards and generation statements.
Sales: For customer. product, and purchase information.
Telecommunication: For keeping records of calls made, generating monthly monthly hi bil maintaini balances on prepaid calling cards, and storing inrormation about communication networks. the
Manufacturing: For tracking production of items in factories, inventories of itemsi warehouses/stores. and orders for items. ms in
Human resources: For information about employees, salaries and payroll taxes etc.

MANUAL DATABASE Vs. COMPUTERIZED DATABASE:-

Manual Database:-

Manual database is a record keeping systems in which human being manage the whole database without the support of computers.
A manual database is like a filing cabinet , and is very slow .
In a manual database system, information must be typically found by hand rather than electronically. Someone looking for information in a manual database may have to spend hours searching for a particular piece of data, which is a very time consuming job.
Less reliable.
Manual database system has slow processing speed . It take a lot of time to perform various database operations like sorting , insertion , deltion and searching .
Manual datadase systems can be very complex and inaccurate .
More prone to data loss and data duplicity.
Difficult to modify or update anual database .

Computerized Database:-

Computerized database is a database that can be managed or accessed by computers.
A computerized database is store in computer , and very fast organizing information .
A computerized database will typically allow users to search the entire database for specific information in seconds.
More reliable than manual database system .
Computerized database system has very fast processing .
Computcrized database more accurate and easy to process .
Less prone to data loss and data duplicity .
Computerizcd database can be eaily modificd .

APPROACHES TO DATA MANAGEMENT:-

With the advancements in computer technology, there was a nced to computeTIE he manual way of storing the data in database. Two approachcs uscd for data tIanapenCHl through computers are:-

File System Approach
Database Approach

1. File System Approach :-

File system approach was an early attempt to computerize the manual filing system. t is basically a collection of application programs that performed services for the end users. ach program within a file based system defines and manages its own data. In this system, a large number of files are needed to perform various tasks. For example: In sales department of an enterprise, one user will be maintaining the details of how many sales personnel are there in the sales department and their grades, these details will be stored and maintained in a separate file. Another user will be maintaining the salesperson salary details working in the concern, the detailed salary report will be stored and maintained in a separate file. Although both of the users are interested in the data's of the salespersons they will be having their details in separate files and they need different programs to manipulate their files. This will lead to wastage of space and redundancy or replication of data's, which may lead to confusion, sharing of data among various users is not possible, data inconsistency may occur.

2. Database Approach:-

In order to remove all the above limitations of the File system approach, a new approacn was required that must be more effective. So, the concept of database was introduced. This approach is known as database approach. A database is a computer based record record and maintains keeping system whose over all purpose is information. The database is a single, large repository of data, whicn can be used simultaneously by many departments and users. With the database instead of disconnected files with approach redundant data, all data items are integrated with minimum amount of duplication and maintained only at one location .

Characteristics of File System Approach:-

Some important characteristics of file system approach are:

It is a group of files storing data of an organization .
Each file is independent from one another .
Each file is called a flat file .
Each file contained and processed information for one specific task, such as accounting or inventory.
Files are designed by using programs written in programming languages such as C++ .

Characteristics of Database Approach:-

A database approach possesses the following characteristics:-

It is central repository of shared data. It allows several uscrs to access the database i d also take concurrently.
A fundamental feature of the database approach is that the database system does not only contain the data but also the complete definition and description of these data These descriptions are basically details about the extent, the structure, the type and the format of all data and, additionally, the relationship between the data. This kind of stored data is called metadata ("data about data").
A Drimary feature of the database approach is a standardized, uniform approach to same data are ng in differen the same data is recorded database access. This means that the same overall procedures are used by all application programs to retrieve data and information.
Data should be corTect with respect to the real world entity that they represent.
Data should be protected from unauthorized access.
Its organization is such that duplication of data is minimized.
Data in a database exist permanently until it is not explicitly deleted.