data processing

data processing

a. a sequence of operations performed on data, esp by a computer, in order to extract information, reorder files, etc.

b. (as modifier): a data-processing centre

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

data processing

[′dad·ə ′präs‚es·iŋ]

(computer science)

Any operation or combination of operations on data, including everything that happens to data from the time they are observed or collected to the time they are destroyed. Also known as information processing.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

data processing

(application)

The input, verification, organisation, storage, retrieval, transformation, and extraction of information from data. The term is normally associated with commercial applications such as stock control or payroll.

This article is provided by FOLDOC - Free Online Dictionary of Computing (foldoc.org)

data processing

(1) The first name given to the information technology (IT) industry. From the early 1900s to the 1960s, it meant feeding punch cards into tabulating machines. Thereafter, data processing referred to computer processing, and eventually IT became the industry term. See punch card.

(2) Processing data/information, which includes text, images, audio and video. The term may refer to business processing (update this order, sum this amount, etc.) or to multimedia processing (encode these video frames, decode and play this audio file, etc.). See data, information, preprocessing and information processing cycle.

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