A Gentle Introduction to Data Cleaning

Curriculum

5 Sections
17 Lessons
Lifetime

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Introduction
In this section, learn about the “horror stories” of where data errors in spreadsheets have led to real consequences and how you can avoid them yourself.
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- 1.1
  Course Outline
Section 1: Nuts and chewing gum
In this section, you’ll gain practical knowledge of common formatting and layout features of spreadsheets and some ideas about how to present your raw data to others so they will love you!
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Section 2: The Invisible Man is in your spreadsheet, messing with your data
In this section, you’ll learn how even characters which you cannot see can cause havoc in data analysis. The section will teach you to ghostbust white space and other non-printable characters such as carriage returns, spaces and tabs. Once you have removed them, you can get on with your analysis in peace.
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Section 3: Your data is a witch’s brew
Three is not a number. Nor is a million. At least not when they are typed in as text in a cell in a spreadsheet. Your spreadsheet is pedantic and needs everything to be precise and consistent. Read on to learn more.
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Section 4: Did you bring the wrong suitcase (again)?
All our spreadsheet wants from us is each cell of data to be organised and neatly packed. In this section, you will analyse data to highlight problems in the way it has been structured so as to avoid them in your own work with data.
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Introduction

Some things just don’t go together. These things include a stuffed toy puppy and an electric light, or nuts and chewing gum:

*Novelty lamp, Albania, 2011. Photo: Tom Longley. Yes, the lampshade is mounted on the puppy’s head. Image License: some rights reserved CC-BY-SA.*

*‘Nuts and Gum’. From The Simpsons Series 5, Episode 14: Lisa vs. Malibu Stacy, 1994. View clip: http://vimeo.com/9372862 Copyright: FOX. Reproduced under Fair Use.*

In spreadsheets, formatting and data don’t go together. Behold the consequences of spreadsheet formatting:

You’ve probably received something as aesthetically abhorrent as the above. Creators of spreadsheets spend a lot of time formatting data in ways that they find useful to them. They change the text size, colour in the cells, introduce borders and lines to give emphasis to the things they are interested in. However, these may not be useful to you as a receiver of that data, and may get in the way of your ability to use the data.

By the end of this section, you’ll have gained the following:

practical knowledge of common formatting and layout features of spreadsheets.
the skills to transform data other people give from a stuffed toy puppy lamp to something less distracting.
some ideas about how to present your raw data to others so they will love you!

Course Outline

A Gentle Introduction to Data Cleaning

Curriculum

Introduction

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