Data Handling is an important topic in statistics. It deals with the collecting set of data and maintaining security, confidentiality, and the preservation of the research data. Here data is nothing but a set of numeric values. Get more useful information regarding the data handling such as the types of data, definition, and terms used in the data handling. You can check out the solved example questions in the following sections of this page.

Data Handling Definition

Data handling is the process of collecting, recording, and representing information in a way that is helpful to others. Data is a collection of all numerical figures, observations that represents a particular kind of information.

Data handling is performed depending on the types of data. Data is classified into two types, such as Quantitative Data, Qualitative Data. Quantitive data gives numerical information, while qualitative data gives descriptive information about anything.

Important Terms of Data Handling

  • Data: The collection of numerical figures regarding a kind of information is called the data.
  • Raw Data: The collection of observations that are gathered initially is called the raw data.
  • Range: The difference between the highest and lowest values in the data collection is called the range.
  • Statistics: It deals with the collection, representation, analysis, and interpretation of numerical data.

Ways to Represent Data

The following are the simple ways to represent the data. Choose anyone for a better presentation.

  • Bar Graph
  • Line Graph
  • Pictographs
  • Histograms
  • Stem and Leaf Plot
  • Dot Plots
  • Frequency Distribution
  • Cumulative Tables and Graphs

Solved Examples on Data Handling

Example 1.

Given below are the marks (out of 150) in mathematics obtained by 20 students of a class in an annual examination.

86   75   69   23   72   120   56   82   96   45

100  66   73  46   19   55     46   99  110  105

Arrange the above data in ascending order and find

(i) the lowest marks obtained,

(ii) the highest marks obtained,

(iii) the range of the given data.

Solution:

Given data is

86   75   69   23   72   120   56   82   96   45

100  66   73  46   19   55     46   99  110  105

Arranging the above data in ascending order, we get

19  23  45  46  46  55  56  66  69  72

73  75  82  86  96  99  100  105  110  120

From the above data analysis, we can say that

The lowest marks obtained is 19.

The highest marks obtained is 120.

The range of the data is 120 – 19 = 101.

Example 2.

Given below are the heights (in cm) of 15 boys of a class:

135, 128, 146, 149, 127, 130, 145, 140, 131, 125, 136, 142, 144, 133, 129

Arrange the above data in ascending order and find

(i) the height of the tallest boy,

(ii) the height of the shortest boy,

(iii) the range of the given data.

Solution:

Given data sample is

135, 128, 146, 149, 127, 130, 145, 140, 131, 125, 136, 142, 144, 133, 129

The ascending order of the data is

125, 127, 128, 129, 130, 131, 133, 135, 136, 140, 142, 144, 145, 146, 149

From the above ascending order, we can find

(i) The height of the tallest boy is 149 cm

(ii) The height of the shortest boy is 125 cm.

(iii) The range is 149 – 125 = 24.

Example 3.

The daily wages of 24 laborer who works in the construction field are given below:

280, 150, 160, 500, 520, 460, 780, 590, 860, 450, 410, 425, 360, 1000, 950, 560, 590, 620, 250, 350, 380, 515, 790, 240

Arrange the above data in ascending order and find

(i) the highest amount is taken per day,

(ii) the lowest amount is taken per day,

(iii) the range of the given data.

Solution:

Given that,

The daily wages of 24 laborer in the construction field are 280, 150, 160, 500, 520, 460, 780, 590, 860, 450, 410, 425, 360, 1000, 950, 560, 590, 620, 250, 350, 380, 515, 790, 240

The ascending order of the given data is

150, 160, 240, 250, 280, 350, 360, 380, 410, 425, 450, 460, 500, 515, 520, 560, 590, 590, 620, 780, 790, 860, 950, 1000

From the ascending order, we can find

The highest amount on daily basis is 1000

The lowest amount taken is 150

The range of the given data is 1000 – 150 = 850

FAQs on Data Handling

1. What are the uses of data handling?

Various real-time uses of data handling are for recording water levels in rivers, for doctors to keep records of patients, to record the economical income of each household, etc.

2. What is the difference between data and information?

Data means raw and unorganized facts. While information is the proper structured and organized data.

3. What are the various methods of collecting data?

The various methods of collecting data are questionnaire, interview, schedule, case study, observation, and projective case study.