Explain different types of data. Briefly outline the advantages and disadvantages of primary and secondary data.My posted question is related with...

In research the term data refers to raw information that
is collected during course of conducting a research, which is then analysed to draw
conclusions about the research subject or question being researched or
investigated.

The research data is classified in two broad
categories, primary data and secondary data, according to the sources of the data. The
primary data is collected by the researcher directly from field research. This data may
be in the form of responses of people to questionnaires, or during interviews, direct
observations of objects, activities and phenomenons in their natural form, or
experiments conducted in field. The secondary data is the data that is available form
research or other studies conducted prior to the current research. Such data is
available typically from books, journals, research reports, statistical data, and other
similar sources. The secondary data may have been created for research in the same
subject as that of the current research or some different subjects. Typically the
secondary data represents the analysed information produced by earlier research efforts,
but it can also include the primary data collected during the course of earlier
research.

Generally it is less expensive and faster to
collect the secondary data. For this reason it is best to first collect and analyse the
available primary data before getting down to collecting the primary data. IN comparison
secondary data is mor expensive and time consuming. However, the secondary data is not
likely to cover all the aspects of the subject and question under investigation.
Therefore, most of useful research cannot be completed without collection and analysis
of some primary data.