Data driven progamming is a programming model where the data itself controls the flow of the program and not the program logic. It is a model where you control the flow by offering different data sets to the program where the program logic is some generic form of flow or of state-changes.
For example if you have program that has four states: UP – DOWN – STOP – START
You can control this program by offering input (data) that represents the states:
- set1: DOWN – STOP – START – STOP – UP – STOP
- set2: UP – DOWN – UP – DOWN
The program code stays the same but data set (which is not of a dynamic input type but statically given to the computer) controls the flow.