Design for Information

APPENDIX

DATA TYPES

It is beyond the scope of this book to go into details about data classification, which is a huge topic. However, we need to have a minimal understanding of the types and attributes of data in order to effectively encode them. Considering that the whole book uses information on data, this appendix offers a description of the terminology used in this book.

The word data originates from the plural of the Latin word datum, which means “something given,” where something stands for a piece of information. The piece of information can be anything from a numerical fact to a person or a quantity. The word data in this book is used in its plural definition and refers to a collection of observed or measured phenomena of the following ...