Algorithms For Dummies

Structuring Data to Obtain a Solution

Humans think about data in nonspecific ways and apply various rules to the same 

data to understand it in ways that computers never can. A computer’s view of data 

is structured, simple, uncompromising, and most definitely not creative. When 

humans prepare data for a computer to use, the data often interacts with the algo-

rithms in unexpected ways and produces undesirable output. The problem is one 

in which the human fails to appreciate the limited view of data that a computer 

has. The following sections describe two aspects of data that you see illustrated in 

many of the chapters to follow.

---

22

 

   

  PART 1