Data

Data is a precious thing and will last longer than the systems themselves. - Tim Berners-Lee

Look at that girl, so pretty she is…

I have hundreds of books and I don’t read them...

These are pretty much common phrases people use, isn’t it?

You are thinking, ‘yeah we do but what is the relation of it to Java at all???’

Yes my dear reader, there is relation. What we achieve telling these is the relation with Java, well not only Java but to the whole computer system.

HOW?

We use this kind of phrases to share Data and data is the basis of computer technology. Everything we do in a computer is deal with data.

So, what is Data?

In its simplest form, Data is a collection of information. This information may be of any type, numbers, words, observations, measurement or even just a description (so pretty she is).

With said that, let’s dive deeper. Data can be of two forms,

1.    Qualitative – it represents description or quality of something. Analogous to Adjectives in grammars.

2.    Quantitative – it represents numerical information like 8 chairs, 9.8 meters, 20 litters etc.

Now, in a way, we can divide quantitative data into two parts as well,

1.    Discrete – it has some restrictions on it. It can take certain values and the values are distinct and separate. This data can’t be broken in smaller units. It’s typically counted in whole numbers.
For example: number of pages in a book, gender of a person (male or female), blood group of a person (A, B, O, AB) etc.

2.    Continuous – it is the data that can be measured and broken down in smaller parts and still be meaningful. It is the data that can be measured on a scale and can have any value within a range.
For example: height of a person, length of a road, volume of a cube etc.

Let’s put all these in a picture.

So, what have I achieved knowing all these?

Right now you have achieved nothing except the fundamentals of data. You will eventually understand this part when you will be designing your classes with different variables. Stay tuned, next we are going into variables, where you can put this knowledge usable.


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Palash Kanti Kundu