Look up raw data in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
The two columns to the right of the left-most column in this computerized table are raw data.
Raw data, also known as primary data, are data (e.g., numbers, instrument readings, figures, etc.) collected from a source. In the context of examinations, the raw data might be described as a raw score (after test scores).
If a scientist sets up a computerized
survey. The term "raw data" can refer to the binary
data on electronic storage devices, such as hard disk drives (also referred to as "low-level data").
Generating data
Data has two ways of being created or made. The first is what is called 'captured data',[1] and is found through purposeful investigation or analysis. The second is called 'exhaust data',[1] and is gathered usually by machines or terminals as a secondary function. For example, cash registers, smartphones, and speedometers serve a main function but may collect data as a secondary task. Exhaustive data is usually too large or of little use to process and becomes 'transient' or thrown away.[1]
Examples
In
Julian date, to make it easier for computers and humans to interpret during later processing. Raw data (sometimes colloquially called "sources" data or "eggy" data, the latter a reference to the data being "uncooked", that is, "unprocessed", like a raw egg) are the data input to processing. A distinction is made between data and information, to the effect that information is the end product of data processing. Raw data that has undergone processing are sometimes referred to as "cooked" data in a colloquial sense.[dubious – discuss] Although raw data has the potential to be transformed into "information
," extraction, organization, analysis, and formatting for presentation are required before raw data can be transformed into usable information.
For example, a
software program or even by a researcher using a pen and paper and a calculator, this raw data may indicate the particular items that each customer buys, when they buy them, and at what price; as well, an analyst or manager could calculate the average total sales per customer or the average expenditure per day of the week by hour. This processed and analyzed data provides information for the manager, that the manager could then use to help her determine, for example, how many cashiers to hire and at what times. Such information could then become data for further processing, for example as part of a predictive marketing campaign. As a result of processing, raw data sometimes ends up being put in a database
, which enables the raw data to become accessible for further processing and analysis in any number of different ways.
unemployment rate, but a poverty advocacy group may be able to have its staff econometricians
do their own analysis of the raw data, which may lead this group to draw different conclusions about the data set.
