datarepresentatie

Datarepresentatie refers to the way information is encoded, stored and transmitted by computer systems. It covers the concrete form of data (bits and bytes), the encoding schemes used to represent values, and the data types and structures that organize information for processing and interpretation.

Numeric representation: integers are stored using fixed width and a sign representation such as two's complement; floating-point numbers follow the IEEE 754 standard, which describes sign, exponent and mantissa. These representations introduce limits, rounding errors and special values like NaN and infinity.

Text representation: characters are encoded as numbers; common schemes include ASCII and Unicode, with UTF-8 being widely used for compatibility and efficiency. Endianness affects multi-byte encodings, and byte order marks or network order may be used to ensure consistency across systems.

Other data types and formats: images, audio and video rely on specific encodings (color models such as RGB, YCbCr; compression). Data can be serialized for storage or transmission using formats like JSON, XML, Protocol Buffers, or Avro, which define both syntax and types.

Data representation in databases and software: databases assign data types, constraints and schemas to ensure consistent interpretation. Data representation affects storage efficiency, query performance and interoperability between systems.

Challenges and considerations: interoperability, backward compatibility, endianness, encoding mismatches, and precision versus performance trade-offs. Standards from IEEE, ISO, and W3C guide common representations and exchange formats.