Data Processing Mechanism

There are different types of data available, which are used in different occasions in computers. A careful observation regarding the types of data can help us to design a perfect database system. Some types of data never changes, some changes occasionally and some type of data changes frequently.

In computers, there are three types of data items. They are Static data items, Changeable data items and Dynamic data items.

Static data items are non-changeable type of data in nature and their values does not change with respect to time. These are very common types of data in nature. Examples of these data are account numbers, date of birth etc.

A changeable data item is one that remains unaltered for some span of time and is not automatically changed at regular intervals, e. g. a tax code cannot change regularly but it may change occasionally when the tax payers financial status changes. Marital status of a person is also an example of it.

Dynamic type of data is changed frequently. It can expect to be updated at regular intervals as a consequence of activities taking place. Examples of this type of data are stock levels in an inventory system.

For data processing, the computer professional must first capture the input data. They could do it by keyboard, automated teller machine, optical mark reader, optical character reader, magnetic ink character, bar code reader etc. The next stage is manipulating the data. It is an important field of data processing.

The computer professional first classify data by grouping the data. They may be grouped by numerical, alphanumerical and alphabetical type. Arithmetic calculations may also be required as part of the manipulating activity. The next stage is to sort the data in a meaningful order.

The storing and retrieving result is not published immediately. It is published when it is asked for. The data is transmitted through copper cable, LAN, INTRANET connections. It may also use INTERNET connections to send data at a very large geographical distance.

There are normally two modes of data processing. These are periodic or batch processing and immediate processing or line processing.