What is Date Processing?

What is Data Processing

Operations or Date Processing

A series of actions or activities performed on data to convert it into meaningful informations is called operation. An operation is also called data processing. In electronic data processing, software is used to process data. Software converts data into meaningful information.

Activities in Data Processing

Basic activates that are involved in data processing are follows:

1.       Data capturing
2.       Data manipulation
3.       Managing output results.

Data Capturing

The process of collecting data and recording it in a form such that it can b processed easily is called data capturing. Data is captured before it is processed. Data may first be recorded on source documents. In a Computerized system, data is entered into the computer through keyboard and recorded on storage devices, however, data can also be collected and recorded automatically into the computer through special input devices.

Data Manipulation

The process of applying different operations on the collected data to achieve the required results is called data manipulation.

Classifying

The process of organizing data into groups or class is called classifying data. For example, the collected data of students’ of intermediate class of a college is organized into groups of ICS, FA, Pre-Medical, and Pre-Engineering etc. Each group or class is assigned a unique code. This code helps in accessing and processing data of a specific group.

Calculation

The process of applying different arithmetic operations on data Is called calculation. The arithmetic operations may be addition, subtraction, multiplication and division etc. For example total marks and average marks of each student of a class are calculated.

Sorting

The process of arranging data in a proper order is called sorting. Data can be sorted numerically or alphabetically. For example, the records of students may be arranged in ascending order based on their names etc.

Summarizing

The process of preparing summary of a large data in a more concise and usable form is called summarizing. For example the data of students of a college van be summarized in the following way:

Total number of students appeared in the examination.

Number of students passed and failed in the examination.

Number of students passed in computer science subjects etc.

Managing Output Results

The process of managing output results properly is called managing output results. The following operations can be performed on the output results

Storing

The process of storing the data on the secondary storage devices for later use is called data storing. Different storage devices are used to store the data the commonly used storage devices are hard disk, CD-ROM, and USB drive etc.

Retrieval

The process of accessing data stored on a storage device is called retrieval. The data is retrieved for different purposes.

Reproduction

The process of making duplicate copies of output results is called reproduction. Usually, the output result is reproduced to distribute it to different persons or users.

Communication

Transferring data from one location to another is called data communication. Today, computer networks are mostly used for transferring data from one place to another. For example, result of students of a college can be communicated through internet (via web page or E-mail).