Types Of Computer Information
What are the different types of computer information? Information is the driving force behind all machine processes. Information is the end result of processed raw data, presented in a manner that makes it understandable and useful. Information is thus synonymous with data, and as such, there about a great many types of computer information.
Computer information varies with the particular application being used but regardless of these variations, the different types of computer information produced by the plethora of softwares and devices out there can be grouped according to several parameters, the most common being their intrinsic characteristic.
As can be learned from most programming languages, computer information can be Integers, Boolean, Floats or Strings.
Integers in computer information are the same as mathematical integers; whole numbers that can be either positive or negative in value. Unsigned integers can represent only positive values while signed integers can have negative values as well. The integer can represent most integer values but on occasion the long integer is required; this is so because the integer can only represent values to two billion on either sides of zero on the number line.
Floats pick up where integers can’t and that is in the representation of numbers with decimal values. Mantissa values are frequent in ordinary computing even when using integer values; float types of computer information enable the device to properly comprehend input values and represent with the highest fidelity the proper output.
A string is an alphanumeric (i.e. can contain both letters and numbers) sequence of computer information; it is often defined as a literal constant or as a variable in programming. The string is the most common method of expressing computer information, whether as input or as output; this article is a very long string of alphabetic characters.
Boolean information is the last of this categorization; human users can rarely perceive it when using or sending this kind of information. Boolean information is logical, and often runs in the background execution of many programs.
An alternative grouping of the different types of computer information is on the basis of its source. With this criterion, computer information can be classified as either machine generated information or human generated.
Machine generated information cannot be manipulated by humans; in most cases, the only thing a person can do about such information is to determine its frequency of data collection, or whether it can be collected. Examples of machine generated information include crash reports, bug reports when software fails due to an internal error, log reports saved by programs which include statistics on usage, materials accessed, networks visited, files copied, etc. Furthermore, most sensor readings are also considered machine generated data.
Human generated types of computer information are produced by deliberate human manipulation using computer applications. The numerous and diversified computer applications enable the manipulation of different types of information. Multimedia items, music, pictures, videos can be altered by softwares such as Wavelab (Music), Adobe Photoshop (pictures) Virtual Dj (videos) and many others. Similarly, other applications can be used to in editing text documents or streamlining financial transactions.
