What's the difference between Data Transformation & Data Manipulation?

Question

What's considered XML Data Transformation?

<My Perspective> Data transformation combining or rearranging one XML to another
XML doc based on their XSDs. E.g XMLa -> firstName | lastName ===(Tranformation) 
==> XMLb -> fullName = concatenate(XMLa.firstName + " " + XMLb.lastName)

I'm using tibco business work & designer to do this.

What's considered XML Data Manipulation?

<My Perspective> Data manipulation is the changing of the data within one XML
to another. E.g. XMLa --> UScurrency ===(Manipulation)==> UScurrency * 1.4 
= SGcurrency ( not in xml?).

Is this considered manipulation ??

In the case of changing information from imperial to metric (E.g. length in feet to length in metres / weight in pound to kg & vice versa), whether this change is to fit another xml or not, is this considered manipulation or transformation?

Answer 1

In general, the term transformation is used if a completely new output document is created from one or more input documents. A typical example would be a transformation with XSLT, but any process that builds a new document can be labeled as transformation.

The term manipulation is used if an existing XML document is altered, that is nodes are added, changed, or removed. This is typically done using the DOM interface.

Answer 2

There is no official definition that distinguishes between these two, as far as I know. I suggest strongly that you go back to whoever assigned you this project and ask them what THEY think the terms mean.

(Specific counterexample: In XSLT, the last letter does stand for Transformation, and XSLT can certainly do computation as well as simple restructuring.)