What is the difference between data and information, with examples?

Data refers to raw, unorganized facts, figures, or symbols that have no meaning on their own. It needs to be processed to become meaningful.

Examples of data include:

• A list of numbers like "10, 25, 7, 30".
• A collection of names such as "John, Mary, David".

Information is data that has been processed, organized, structured, or presented in a given context to make it meaningful and useful.

Examples of information include:

• "The average score of students in a test is 25." (Processed from a list of scores).
• "John is 10 years old, Mary is 7 years old, and David is 30 years old." (Organized data about names and ages).

The key distinction is that data is raw and unprocessed, while information is processed, meaningful data. Data is the input for processing, and information is the output.