Can you explain what is meant by Data Source in the context of data development and management?

In the context of development and working with data, Data Source is an object or component that provides data to an application or its part.

For example, in iOS development, Data Source is often used to describe an object that supplies data for display in a table (UITableView) or collection (UICollectionView). It is responsible for the number of items, cell content, etc.

Example: UITableViewDataSource — a protocol that implements methods for obtaining the number of rows and configuring cells.

More generally, a Data Source can be:

• Database
• Web service
• Local file
• Any other source from which the application receives data

Thus, a Data Source is an abstraction that separates the logic of data retrieval from its usage, simplifying the architecture and testing of the application.