Talk:Data (computer science)

Code is data

In modern languages code can be passed around via closures or delegates, edited, and persisted to databases much the same way any other data could be manipulated. The idea that anything that code isn't data is incorrect, as code can certainly be data at times.

Correct. Fixed. SunSw0rd (talk) 18:47, 11 October 2012 (UTC)

Data are?

Data (plural of "datum") are ... Silicon retina (talk) 18:51, 21 February 2011 (UTC)

I found this page when I was researching grammar before reverting an edit that changed "data is" to "data are" on a computing related page. From this I have learned that in computing, "data" is often used as a mass noun. (mass noun; I learned something new today :)

• Eight bytes of data are transmitted .... (enumerated with units and therefore "data" is plural)
• The data is transmitted .... (not enumerated and no units, a mass noun and therefore "data" is singular)

You could argue against this, but then you would have to argue that "a single byte of data" should be phrased "a single byte of datum".

If you disagree with me, then try to convince a programmer that the proper term is "datum-byte". (I'd pay money to be ringside for that.)

Final note: the current first paragraph of this Data_(computing) article uses both "Digital data is" and "Digital data are". Which is correct? Or are both acceptable usage? EE JRW (talk) 01:02, 23 August 2014 (UTC)

The word "data" as used in mobile phone pricing

I can't find a definition of the word data as used by mobile phone companies. The word appears in practically every mobile phone-related advertisement, but I'm sure they are not targeting IT specialists or statisticians. Phone companies seem to divide their services into "data" and "minutes", which they charge quite differently. For example, with such-and-such a package you get 50MB of data to use in one month, and 500 minutes of talktime. I've never been able to work out what this kind of data is. To me, data means numerical records of physical things like temperature, or how much electricity the country used over the last 5 years, or the speed and location of a rocket. I would be surprised if many people bought their mobile phones in order to send this kind of data to each other, so I conclude that I have not yet got a handle on what mobile phone companies mean by "data". (My best guess is that they mean internet usage, because with my megabytes of data I can apparently do Google searches and look at websites. But what prompted anybody to call internet usage "data"? I know that using the internet involves sending ones and zeros which are numbers and therefore sort of data; but voice calls are also transmitted as ones and zeros and yet are invariably distinguished from data.)
So what do mobile phone companies mean by "data"? UBJ 43X (talk) 09:49, 11 May 2016 (UTC)

External links modified

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on Data (computing). Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:

• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20080311234210/http://www.emc.com:80/leadership/digital-universe/expanding-digital-universe.htm? to http://www.emc.com/leadership/digital-universe/expanding-digital-universe.htm

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true or failed to let others know (documentation at {{Sourcecheck}}).

This message was posted before February 2018. After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{source check}} (last update: 18 January 2022).

• If you have discovered URLs which were erroneously considered dead by the bot, you can report them with this tool.
• If you found an error with any archives or the URLs themselves, you can fix them with this tool.

Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 07:35, 7 December 2016 (UTC)