Define Data Processing? What Activities Are Involved In Data Processing?

The process of manipulating data is achieving the required objectives and results are called data processing.
Activities in data processing
Following activities involved in data processing
Data Capturing
The procedure of record the data in some form is called data capturing. Data is captured before it can be processed. Data may be recorded on source documents. Data can also be given directly to the computer through input devices.
Data manipulating
The process of applying different operations on data is called data manipulation. The following operations can be performed on data
Classifying
The process of organizing data into classes or group is called classifying.
Calculations
The method of applying arithmetic operations on data is called calculations.
Sorting
The process in which data is arranged in a logical sequence is called sorting.
Summarizing
The reducing of large amount of data in a more concise and usable form is called summarizing.
Managing Output Result
Following activities are involved in data managing output result
Storage
In which retaining data for future use is called data storage.
Retrieval
Accessing or fetching the stored data is called retrieval of data.
Communication
The transferring of data from one location to another location is called communication.
Reproducing
Copying or duplicating data is called reproduction of data.

A computer process that simply have to change the data into information and meaningful knowledge. The processing in most of cases is supposed to be automated or executing on a computer. As data are most helpful when well-presented and in fact informative, data-processing systems are often referred to as the information systems to emphasize their practicality. Nonetheless, both of the terms are roughly synonymous, performing alike conversions; data-processing systems characteristically manipulate raw data into information, and similarly information systems typically take raw data as an input to produce information as output.

In general, the term data processing can simply be applied to any process that converts the data from one format to another format, although the data conversion would be the more logical and correct term. From this viewpoint, the data processing becomes a process of converting the information into the data and also the converting of data back into information. The only difference is that the conversion doesn't require a question or query to be answered. The light, etc. are converted by human observers into electrical signals in the nervous system as the senses we recognize as touch, sound, or vision.

1.collection
2.conversion
3.manipulation
4.communication
5.storage