Difference between Information and Data

Data and information are interrelated. In fact, they are often mistakenly used interchangeably. Data is considered as raw entity whereas information is something useful derived from that raw entity. For instance, a series of alphanumeric characters makes up a word or a number and several words and/or numbers make up a sentence. Some process needs to making the data useful and turned to Information .

Data is an individual unit (character, text, words, number etc.) that contains raw material which does not carry any specific meaning. Information is a set of data which is processed in a meaningful way according to the given requirement.

Data :

Information :

If we organize this Data it becomes information like this :

Key Difference between Data And Information

1. Data is a collection of facts. Information is how you understand those facts in context.
2. Data doesn't carry a meaning. Information must carry a logical meaning.
3. Data is unorganized while information is structured or organized.
4. Data alone has no significance while Information is significant by itself.
5. Data is not typically useful on its own, but information is.
6. Data doesn't depend on information. Information depends on data.
7. Data is used as input for the computer system. Information is the output of data.
8. Data does not directly helps in decision making. Information directly helps in decision making.

Data can be easily structured as the following:

1. Tabular data
2. Graph
3. Data tree

Information can also be structured as the following:

1. Language
2. Ideas
3. Thoughts

Data Mining Technologies, Web Mining Technologies, Big Data Analysis Technologies and etc are the examples of resulting Information from Data.