One of the favorite questions in tests by teachers of schools and elementary university courses in computer science is “What is the form for presenting the same type of data? What forms do you know?” Unfortunately, in most cases they require a very specific answer, which is spelled out in textbooks, but how correct is it? Let's start from the very beginning to deal with this problem.
Definition
Before answering the question: “What is the form of presenting the same type of data?”, Let's find out what is at stake. Data (information) is a collection of knowledge about the world around us, which are the object of processing by computer systems. What are the types and forms of data presentation?
- Sound. The very first form of data transmission on earth. These are the words, sounds that our environment makes in order to transmit knowledge to us.
- Graphic. Rock paintings, children's drawings, graphics, drawings.
- Text. Having learned to draw, mankind has moved to a more complex form of presenting information, having developed a special “code” that can describe any object in the world around it.
- Numeric. The next step is to quantify the parameters of the object.
- Video information that appeared at the end of the 19th century.
Conformity
As you can see, there are a great many types of information. How briefly can the form of presentation of the same type of data be called? If you think about it, it's hard to say unequivocally that there is such a way. On the one hand, all types of information that we described above are already in themselves a form of transmission, moreover, of the same type of data. On the other hand, figures or text can be depicted in the drawing, so what do teachers and students demand from students and pupils? Why does this question often cause students to drop grades?
Answer
If you got the question on the exam: "The form for presenting the same type of data," then the only correct answer will be a table. Of course, this is rather strange, because the cells of the table can contain formulas, text, and pictures, and in some applications you can place a video fragment in a cell. So where is the truth? The fact is that in this case “of the same type” means data that can be combined according to a certain criterion. That is, in the first column - the year of birth of the person, in the second - his last name. And it doesn’t matter if this information is written in letters, numbers, drawn or presented as an audio file. All data of one column will carry the same semantic load.