ABSTRACT
This chapter is concerned with the objectives of transforming data into information and with the characteristics of information which will affect the quality of the end product, the decision and the action based upon it. An understanding of the fundamental nature of information and the manner in which it can be classified is a first necessity. As the information tree shows, by selecting successive branches, the route leading to the location of the information concerning the item being investigated is clearly marked. Every piece of information that is stored has to be inspected before it can be decided that it has nothing to say about the feature. In the analysis of sales data, it is the comparison of a piece of information with other pieces of information, or the collating of many pieces of information, that requires to be done.
