The use of data types is widespread accross computing and IT, best described as a definition of data, there are many different datatypes. In this section we will review the data types and why they might be used over others.
Numeric data type will be best suited to inputs and outputs that deal with whole numbers, ie 1,2,3 10,100,1000 and so on. This data type is oftern used in database and software programs for storing or using data like house numbers, ages (not date of birth)
The text date type is used when dealing with a written word, phrase or sentence. It is capable of using symbols in most programs too.
o sales data
o marketing data:
o financial data
o employee data
o customer data
o usage data:
▪ traffic data
• external:
o public (for example open data, repositories)
o government (for example data.gov.uk)
o suppliers
o competitors
o sector/industry
o market research
o repositories
o internal databases
o file structures and formats
o hard drives:
▪ solid state drive (SSD)
▪ hard disk drive (HDD)
o portable storage devices
o file servers
o network-attached storage (NAS) devices
o storage area network (SAN)
o file storage
o object storage
o block storage
o elastic cloud/scalable storage
o cloud-based database services
Links to Learning Outcomes |
Links to Assessment criteria |
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R3.1 The fundamental characteristics of data |
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