Data is a sequence of numbers, words, or other symbols. Data needs to be explained to become information. Digital data is data stored using the binary system, and is 1s and 0s. In computer systems invented after 1960, all data is digital. Data can be transported over a network or in memory, be changed, or be stored and be inactive. Data moving inside of a computer moves in multiple of these binary digits, in multiple conductors. Data that comes from a system that detects temperature is often analog and needs to become many binary digits, instead. Data that is used for numbers, characters, or symbols is stored using various magnets, a disc, electronics, or mechanically.^[1] Data goes into and out of various other devices attached to the computer. Memory elements often use a hexadecimal address, and 1 byte of storage. Data is, many times, stored in databases. A visual, such as a graph, can be created out of data.

Data can be metadata, or data that is about other data. It can be suggested, or it can be given. Data relating to actual events usually has the time recorded as metadata. Computers follow commands given to them as data, and those commands are called programs. A program is a list of commands that control the computer, and which it does. When the program is acted on by the computer, it consists of code. The storage used by the program, but not acted on by the central processing unit (CPU) are data. A single datum is a value stored inside of the computer. Files containing only binary are sometimes called data, so as to point out the difference between these files and readable text.^[2] The amount of digital data was guessed to be 281 exabytes in 2008.^[3][4]