Q. What is the difference between data and information?
Data is facts in raw and unprocessed form.
Information is usually the processed outcome of data.
Example:
The values 60,61,65,68 represent data.
But when I say these are the cut-off scores for a particular exam in last four years, this becomes information.
To further delve into it, the table below has just data as it does not tell what these facts or numbers represent.
1101 90 20
1102 75 19
1103 35 20
Whereas, the following table contains information for the obvious reason (we know what these numbers represent, it gives us information not just data)
Roll No Perc Age
1101 90 20
1102 75 19
1103 35 20
Hence, In other words “Data in a given context is information”. We will further look into this statement in detail in the next question.
Q. What is metadata?
In short: Metadata is “data about data”.
It is descriptive information about a particular data set.For example, an image may include metadata that describes how large the picture is, the color depth, the image resolution, when the image was created, and other data. A text document’s metadata may contain information about how long the document is, who the author is, when the document was written, and a short summary of the document.
Real life example: Library catalogue is analogous to metadata in database.
The illustration below shows how the column names act as metadata and give meaning to the values stored in the table.
Hence, metadata gives context to the data. As we discussed in the previous answer that “Data in a given context is information” hence,in some instances it is metadata which sets the context for the data to be represented as information.
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