Data Representation Flashcards
Data
collection facts, symbols, or measurements. There is no significance
Data is collected and processed to create information for making decisions
Information
result of processing, manipulating, organizing data that adds to a person’s knowledge
Data encoding
process of transferring data into a digital format that can be stored or processed in computers
Data decoding
reverse of encoding, transferring data from a digital format into a form that humans can understand
Data > Encoding > (bits) 0100…1000 > Decoding > Data
Character encoding
representing characters used in the world’s writing systems as bits for transmission, processing, or storage of textual data
Character maps
table that matches each character with a unique combination of bits
ASCII
American Standard Code for Information Interchange is a character-encoding scheme
7-bit character code to encode 128 characters (including 33 non-printing)
Extra bit in a byte is used as a parity bit
Extended ASCII
uses a byte to encode characters including standard ASCII and additional 127 characters such as %, $, &
Unicode
standard designed to encode text and symbols from all the world’s alphabets. It includes more than 110,000 characters
UTF-8
: A variable-width encoding with 8-bit, 16-bit, 24-bit, or 32-bit. Compatible with ASCII and picks width depending on character to minimize storage
UTF-32
: encodes exactly 32 bits per character. Main advantage is that characters are directly mapped to bits without any operation therefore, characters are encoded and decoded efficiently. However, method requires larger storage
UTF-16:
variable-width encoding with 16-bit or 32-bit representation between UTF-8 and UTF-32
UTF-8 is used in web
UTF-16 is used in Java and Windows
UTF-8 and UTF-32 is used in Unix systems
Conversions between standards are possible and makes it easier to support multiple input and output formats
Data types::
Numerical: includes all numbers (integer, real)
Text (Alpha-numerical): includes any combination of characters (numbers, letters, special characters)
Data types are functioned (1) to define the possible values that the data can have, (2) to define the operations that can be performed on the data, (3) to determine the storage requirement of the data
Helps organize data in storage medium (computer memory or hard drive)
Metadata
data dictionary that describes the structure of the actual data