Data Analysis
When the domain from which data are harvested is a science or engineering field, the terms data processing and information systems are considered too broad, and the more specialized term data analysis is typically used. Data analysis, arguably a special kind of data processing, focusses on highly-specialized and highly-accurate algorithmic derivations and statistical calculations that are less often observed in the typical general business environment.
A divergence of culture between data processing in general and data analysis is exhibited in the numerical representations generally used; In data processing, measurements are typically stored as integers, fixed-point or binary-coded decimal representations of numbers, whereas the majority of measurements in data analysis are stored as floating-point representations of rational numbers.
For data analysis, packages like DAP, gretl or PSPP are often used.
Read more about this topic: Computer Data Processing
Famous quotes containing the words data and/or analysis:
“To write it, it took three months; to conceive it three minutes; to collect the data in it—all my life.”
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940)
“Analysis as an instrument of enlightenment and civilization is good, in so far as it shatters absurd convictions, acts as a solvent upon natural prejudices, and undermines authority; good, in other words, in that it sets free, refines, humanizes, makes slaves ripe for freedom. But it is bad, very bad, in so far as it stands in the way of action, cannot shape the vital forces, maims life at its roots. Analysis can be a very unappetizing affair, as much so as death.”
—Thomas Mann (1875–1955)