Data and selection expression

online docs don't give a direct hint.

so my shot from the hip: 
selection expression - $select(), $case()  where you get a value based  on a condition
data expression - anything that sets, modifies, composes data.

this is  a quite academic view since  data expressions may contain selection expressions
and selection expressions may contain data expressions.
both variants and any mix of it  are quite common in COS 

more...

HTH