Data (computing)

Data (computing)

Data ( /ˈdeɪtə/ DAY-tə or /ˈdætə/) are the quantities, characters, or symbols on which operations are performed by a computer, being stored and transmitted in the form of electrical signals and recorded on magnetic, optical, or mechanical recording media. A program is a set of data that consists of a series of coded software instructions to control the operation of a computer or other machine. Physical computer memory elements consist of an address and a byte/word of data storage. Digital data can be reduced to key/value pair combinations. Supersets of this idea, where keys are derived, and values are arranged, relatively, are called data structures. They are also used in peripheral devices.

In an alternate usage, binary files (which are not human-readable) are sometimes called "data" as distinguished from human-readable "text". The total amount of digital data in 2007 was estimated to be 281 billion gigabytes (= 281 exabytes).