Q. What is data in computers?

In modern digital computers data is signified in binary form by employing two symbols 0 and 1. These are known as binary digits or bits however data which we deal with comprises numeric data and characters like alphabets A to Z, decimal digits 0 to 9, arithmetic operators (e.g. +,-, etc.), relations operators (e.g. =, > , etc.) and many other special characters (e.g.;,@,{,], etc.). Consequently there has to be a specific mechanism for data representation. Old computers employ eight bits to signify a character. This allows up to 28 = 256 different items to be represented uniquely. This collection of eight bits is termed as a byte. So one byte is used to represent one character internally. Most computers employ two bytes or four bytes to signify numbers (positive and negative) internally. The data comprises the operational data like integer, decimal number etc.