Chapter Three

Information and Data processing

1.1. What is Information?
Up to now, the world has evolved through three societies: The agricultural society, the
Industrial society and The Information society. Now a day (at the information society),
remembering the world without information technology is not possible. The emergence of
globalization necessitates the use of information technology in our daily lives. The Silicon chips
technology has revolutionized the way activities are performed and it also narrowed the world
into village.
Information technology has become something that we can’t avoid using. It is now becoming
the agent of change. There are rapid and considerable advancements in the area of information
and communication technologies. Use of information technology simplifies the way things are
done in offices or organizations, facilitates communication in different and distant areas.
Hence, everyone needs to have the knowledge of applying information technology in our daily
activities.
Data versus information
Data is defined as raw facts about something represented by characteristics such as letters,
numbers and other symbols. Data takes variety of forms including numeric, text, voice and
images.
Information is a collection of meaningful facts and figures that can be used as basis for guidance
and decision making. Therefore data is a row fact of information and information is the
processed data. Data is meaningless by itself, but it gives meaningful information after
processed.
Information is the processed data that man can understand & get knowledge out of it.
Information can be either digital information or analog information. Analog information can
take any value, whereas digital information can only take a limited number of different values.
For example, as shown in Figure 1 there are digital watches and analog watches. On the digital

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watch each number (or digit) can only take one out of ten different values (the numbers
between 0 and 9). On the analogue watch the hands can be in any position, so there is no
restriction on the number of values it can display. This distinction is important when we are
talking about computers because they store and process digital information only.

Digital information can be further categorized depending on how many different values are
permitted. For example, the numbers on the digital watch can take 10 different values, so they
are displaying decimal digital information. Computers can only store and process binary digital
information. Binary digital information can take one of only 2 values of 0s or 1s.
As computers are capable of storing large amounts of information, it is useful to have a means
of measuring information. The smallest amount of binary digital information we can have is a
single value (i.e. either a 0 or a 1). This is called a bit, or binary digit. In computers bits are
stored in groups of 8, which are referred to as a byte. However, because computers store and
process very large amounts of information, it is usually measured in kilobytes, megabytes, or
even gigabytes. Table 1 shows what these terms mean.
1 byte = 8 bits

1 kilobyte (kB) = 1024 bytes

1 megabyte (MB) = 1024 kilobytes

1 gigabyte (GB) = 1024 Megabytes

Table 1 – Measurement of information

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1.2 Sources of information
Information is not something that we get readily available. So information can be obtained
from different sources. In general the various sources of information are classified into two
categories.
1. Documentary sources
2. Non- Documentary sources
1. Documentary Sources
 These are documented or recorded sources of information in different forms.
 Based on the order in which they are available to public use.
Documentary sources information can be further categorized into three groups. These are:
I. Primary documentary source
II. Secondary documentary source
III. Tertiary documentary source
That is the primary sources appear first followed by secondary & finally by tertiary
I. Primary Documentary Sources
 These are the first published records of original research.
 It may also be a description of new application or new interpretation of an old idea.
 In other words it is a document represents unfiltered & original idea.
 The primary documentary sources are important sources of information they are
unorganized and rather difficult to use directly as they are.
 These sources can be published in a variety of forms.
 Some examples of primary source of information are:
 Periodicals: means prepared in fixed time every day, every week, month and so on.
E.g. journals and bulletins.
 Research report: are reports produced regarding research and development
projects.
 Notes taken by a medical personals or physicians and medical laboratory results.
 Original art works

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  Set of data such as census statistics
 Interviews, surveys and field works
 Technical reports
 Diaries, journals, speeches, letters, memos, autobiographies, memoirs, photographs
and original records etc.
II. Secondary Documentary Sources
 These are the compiled forms of primary documentary sources.
 These are modified, selected and reorganized form of primary sources.
 Unlike the primary documentary sources, the secondary sources of information
contain filtered, organized, & digested knowledge rather than new knowledge.
 It is also very easy to make available & get secondary source than primary sources.
 They are always produced after primary sources.
Examples:
 History
 Works of criticism and interpretation
 Review articles and literatures
 Commentaries
 Bibliographies (may also be tertiary)
 Dictionaries and encyclopedias (may also be primary)
 Textbooks, reference books, chronologies, indexes etc.
III. Tertiary Documentary Sources
 Tertiary documentary sources are contain the refined or distilled & collected forms
of primary & secondary sources of information
 Tertiary sources are organized with the aim of assisting the searcher of information
in the use of primary & secondary sources.
 Example:
 Directories, catalogues, revised textbooks, guidelines, manuals.
 Indexing and abstracting tools used to locate primary and secondary source (may
also be secondary), etc.

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2. Non- Documentary Sources
 Sources, those are not properly recorded or documented for public use.
 This is not intentionally organized to serve a wide range of actual users.
 These sources provide information those do not have the primary & secondary
sources.
Generally it can be grouped into two. Formal and Informal
I. Formal non-documentary sources
 Include professional societies, industries, research organizations, government
departments and universities etc.
 The user formally consults the formal non-documentary sources to get the required
information.
II. Informal non- documentary sources
 Includes conversation with friends, visitors, attendance for professional meetings
etc.
 If you encounter some problem while you are working on your personal computer
you had better get consult from your friend than reading reference books.

1.3 Data Processing

Data is any collection of raw facts. Data processing is the manipulation of data into more useful
form. Data processing includes not only numerical calculation but also operations such as the
classification of data & transmission of data from one place to another.

1.3.1 Methods of data processing

The type of data processing method is dependent on the volume of task to be accomplished.
There are two ways of data processing.
A. Manual data processing
 This method of data processing is manipulating of data manually. This manual method is
time consuming and less accurate. And also suffers duplicating of work, limited
productivity of employees, lack of control and dishonesty.

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  This method is used, if the volume of data is low or there is a relatively long time frame
allowed for reporting and if accuracy of result is not critical or if budget is restriction
prohibit the investment in equipment.
 The main tools of manual data processing are brain, pen, paper etc.
B. Electronic (Computer) data processing
 The way of s data processing, that manipulates data more useful form in computerized
ways. This method performs by using electrical machines or computers.
 Some of basic advantages of this method are:
o Accuracy: giving correct result, if we inter correct inputs and
o Speed: taking a few seconds to perform data processing.
 Generally there are two ways of computer data processing. There are: File processing
and database processing
I. File processing: this type of data processing is the way of processing and storing data in
separate files. In this type of data processing: not easy data redundancy and
consistency, difficult to access data, no data integrity and there is no security. e.g. Ms.
Word processing
II. Database processing: this way of data processing processes related data together by
using database management system (DBMS). In DB processing: There is data
redundancy and consistency, access data can be done easily, provide data isolation,
have data integrity, Concurrent access and security. E.g. of DBMSs are: Ms. Access,
structural query language (SQL) and oracle.

1.3.2 Data Processing Cycle

The data processing cycle represents the chain of processing events in most data processing
applications. It consists of
 Data recording: the original data is first must be recorded in a form readable by the
system.
 Transmission: then the data transmitted to a computer that performs the data
processing functions.

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  Reporting: after processing the data, the computer reports summary results to the
program’s operator.
 Storing: after reported the result of the data processing the computer stores the original
and modified data.
 Retrieval: after storing the data the final step of data processing cycle is retrieval that
means accessing the stored data.
In general data processing can be classified in to three parts.
 Input: to process the data first enter the correct data in the computer in readable
format
 Processing: after entered the correct data in to the computer in the form of input,
process to get the desired information.
 Output: this is the final part of data processing provides the required information in
readily useable format.
The three steps taken in this order are known as data processing cycle.

Input Processing Output

Figure 3.1 Data Processing cycle

1.3.3 Data Processing Criteria

For information to be valuable it must meet at least the following three criteria:
 Accuracy: - The input must be accurate and the individual steps of data processing
should be accurate then we get accurate output.
 Timeliness: -The timeliness of the information means meaningful information must be
delivered to the user within the given interval.
 Meaningfulness: - The information produced by the data processing must be
appropriate, clear, precise & relevant.

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1.4 Data Representing and Numbering System
1.4.1 Computer Data Representation
As you have discussed in first chapter Computers are electronic device that can process and
store data. Since computer is electronic device it work in the form of volt that is 0v or +5v.
These two states can represent OFF/ON or FALSE/TRUE.

HIGH/+5v LOW/0v
ON represented by 1 OFF represented by 0
TRUE. FALSE

1.4.2 Numbering System

Why we study numbering system?
To know how to computers understand and process data we have to study about numbering
system. What is Numbering System?
Numbering System (NS) is the way of representing numbers in different forms. There are
different numbering systems. Some of these Binary NS, Octal NS, Decimal NS and Hexadecimal
NS are the most widely used Numbering Systems.

Binary Number system

This is the way of data representing into two states 0s and 1s. That is called binary NS. Binary
means two
This binary NS has two symbols/digits 0s and 1s. Also called base two written in the form of (x) 2.

Octal Number Systems

Octal number system is the way data representing in the base eight systems using the 8
symbols/digits 0-7. It is used to provide a short hand way to deal with the long strings of 1s and
0s created in binary.

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Decimal Numbering System

These NS is familiar NS in our day to day activities. Decimal NS is base 10 NS and it has ten
symbols/digits that is 0-9. It is called Decimal Numbering System or base 10.

Hexadecimal Numbering System

The hexadecimal is a base16 system. It contains the digits 0 through 9 and the capital letters A
through F. The hexadecimal system is often used in programming as a short cut to the binary
number system like that of the octal number system. The difference between decimal and
hexadecimal is the numbers that are above 9. In hexadecimal numbering system the numbers
above nine are represented by capital letter (A-F).
A= 10
B =11
C=12
D= 13
E=14
F=1

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Conversion one NS into others

To convert any NS into decimal NS and vice versa we follow the following steps.
If we have (an, an-1, an-2…a1, a0) y NS and convert into decimal (an*ym-1+an-1*ym-2+…+a1*y1+a0*y0)
where ‘Y’ and ‘m’ represents the base of the number and number of digits respectively. To
convert decimal NS
(an, an-1, an-2…a1, a0) 10 to any NS divide the decimal number by the given base then put the
reminder and divide the quotient and put the reminder again until the quotient 0. Then write
the reminder from last to end.

Binary to decimal conversion and vice versa

Any combination of 0s and 1s is a binary number system. To convert a binary number to a

decimal numbers system, we follow expanding method.
Example: (11011)2 = 1x24+1x23+0x22+1x21+1x20
= 16+8+0+2+1
= (27)10

Decimal to Binary conversion

A positive integer can be easily converted to equivalent binary form by the repeated division by
2. Start by dividing the given decimal integer by 2.
Example: Find the binary equivalent of 25 Q=quotient and R=reminder.
Q R
25/ 2 12 1
12/2 6 0
6/2 3 0
3/2 1 1
1/2 0 1
Therefore, the equivalent binary digit is: 110012
The conversion of decimal fractions to other number system is performed by: multiplying the
fraction by the base and saving at each multiplication the integral digit resulting from the
multiplication. This process is continued until the fraction becomes zero. The integral digits
form the new binary fraction reading from top to bottom.

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Example: Convert 0.75 to binary.
Fraction Integer
0.75 x 2 = 1. 50 1
0.50 x 2 = 1. 00 1
Therefore the equivalent binary is (0.11)2

Conversion Octal, Hexadecimal to decimal and vice versa.

To convert these NS use the above steps except changing the base
Example 1: convert (23) 8 into decimal Example 2: convert (D2) 16 to decimal
Solution: 2*81+3*80 Solution: D*161+2*160
2*8+3*1 D(13)*16+2*1
=16+3= 19 =208+2=210
The equivalent decimal is: 18 Equivalent decimal is: 210
Example 3: convert 155 to octal Example 4: convert 325 to hexadecimal
Q R Q R
155/ 8 19 3 325/16 20 5
19/8 2 3 20/16 1 4
2/8 0 2 1/16 0 1
The equivalent octal is: (233)8 The equivalent hexadecimal is: (145)16

Conversion among Binary, Octal and Hexadecimal.

To covert a binary number to octal, begin from right and block off groups of three binary digits
if the number is before point and from left to right if the number is after point. Replace each
group of three binary digits with its equivalent octal digit. The digits will range from 0 to7.
To convert from octal to binary, replace each octal digit with the equivalent three binary digits.
Use the same process for fractions starting at the point. Add more 0s to complete the last set of
three.
The conversion to and from hexadecimal is identical, except that process of four binary digits
are used and the hexadecimal values range from 0 to F.

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 Example: Convert the binary 11110111.011 to octal and hexadecimal.
Binary 011 110 111. 011
3 6 7 3 = (367.3)8
Binary 1111 0111. 0110
F 7 6 = (F7.6)16
Or in another way first convert into decimal then convert to the desired NS. But it is time
consuming.

Decimal Binary Octal Hexadecim

0 0 0 0
al
1 1 1 1
2 10 2 2
3 11 3 3
4 100 4 4
5 101 5 5
6 110 6 6
7 111 7 7
8 1000 10 8
9 1001 11 9
10 1010 12 A
11 1011 13 B
12 1100 14 C
13 1101 15 D
14 1110 16 E
15 1111 17 F
Equivalent among the four Numbering system

3.5. Encoding systems

Computer systems understand only binary number systems. Because of this, each letter or
number that we enter through the keyboard should be converted to the binary number system
to be understood and processed by the computer. For this purpose there are two standard
encoding systems for representing data.
1. ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange): It uses seven - bits to
represent a character. It is used in almost all microcomputers and many minicomputers.

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2. EBCDIC (Extended Binary-Coded Decimal Interchange): is an 8 bit-coding scheme used on
many minicomputers and almost all mainframes. Eight bits allow 28 or 256 possible code
combination.
A character that is represented using either ASCII or EBCDIC will fit within 8 bits. EBCDIC is an 8-
bit code. ASCII is a 7- bit, but by adding an extra, meaningless bit, it will fit an 8- bit space.
Most computers could use either coding scheme. The choice really depends on the scheme for
which the software is written. Since both schemes represent the same group of characters,
there is other software available to translate one code to the other so that ASCII computers can
communicate with EBCDIC computers and vices versa.

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