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Week 2

The document discusses the 8 key steps in the data preparation process: data collection, cleaning, transformation, integration, reduction, splitting, formatting, and documentation. Common tasks in each step like handling missing values, feature engineering, merging datasets, and converting data types are described.

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MANISH P
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13 views3 pages

Week 2

The document discusses the 8 key steps in the data preparation process: data collection, cleaning, transformation, integration, reduction, splitting, formatting, and documentation. Common tasks in each step like handling missing values, feature engineering, merging datasets, and converting data types are described.

Uploaded by

MANISH P
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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WEEK 2 BUSINESS DATA MINING

The data preparation process, also known as data preprocessing or data cleaning, is a
crucial step in data analysis and machine learning. It involves transforming raw data into
a clean, structured format suitable for analysis or modeling. Here are the detailed steps in
the data preparation process:

1. Data Collection:
- The first step in data preparation is collecting the raw data from various sources, such
as databases, files, APIs, or sensors. Ensure that the data collected is relevant to the
research or analysis objectives.

2. Data Cleaning:
- Data cleaning involves identifying and correcting errors, inconsistencies, and missing
values in the dataset. Common tasks in data cleaning include:
- Removing duplicates: Identifying and removing duplicate records or observations
from the dataset.
- Handling missing values: Dealing with missing values by imputing them using
techniques such as mean, median, mode imputation, or using predictive models to
estimate missing values.
- Correcting errors: Identifying and correcting errors in the data, such as typos,
outliers, or inconsistencies in formatting.
- Standardizing data: Standardizing data formats, units, and representations to ensure
consistency across the dataset.

3. Data Transformation:
- Data transformation involves converting the raw data into a format suitable for
analysis or modeling. Common tasks in data transformation include:
- Data encoding: Encoding categorical variables into numerical representations using
techniques such as one-hot encoding, label encoding, or ordinal encoding.
- Feature scaling: Scaling numerical features to a similar range to prevent certain
features from dominating others during analysis or modeling.
- Normalization: Normalizing data to ensure that it follows a specific distribution,
such as a normal distribution, by scaling data to have a mean of zero and a standard
deviation of one.
- Feature engineering: Creating new features or variables from existing ones to capture
additional information or improve model performance.

4. Data Integration:
- Data integration involves combining data from multiple sources or datasets into a
single, unified dataset. Common tasks in data integration include:
- Merging datasets: Combining datasets based on common identifiers or keys to create
a unified dataset.
- Joining tables: Joining tables or databases to consolidate related information into a
single dataset.
- Concatenating data: Appending rows or columns from multiple datasets to create a
larger dataset.

5. Data Reduction:
- Data reduction involves reducing the size or dimensionality of the dataset while
preserving its important characteristics. Common techniques in data reduction include:
- Dimensionality reduction: Reducing the number of features or variables in the
dataset using techniques such as principal component analysis (PCA) or feature selection
algorithms.
- Sampling: Sampling a subset of the data to reduce computational complexity or
address imbalance issues in the dataset.
- Aggregation: Aggregating data at a higher level of granularity to reduce the size of
the dataset while preserving key insights.

6. Data Splitting:
- Data splitting involves dividing the dataset into separate training, validation, and test
sets for model training, evaluation, and testing. Common splitting ratios include 70/30 or
80/20 for training and testing, respectively.
- Stratified sampling may be used to ensure that the distribution of target variables is
similar across the training and test sets, especially for classification tasks with
imbalanced classes.

7. Data Formatting:
- Data formatting involves formatting the dataset into a standardized format for analysis
or modeling. Common tasks in data formatting include:
- Reshaping data: Reshaping the dataset from wide to long format or vice versa to
facilitate analysis or modeling.
- Date/time conversion: Converting date/time variables into a standardized format to
enable temporal analysis.
- Data type conversion: Converting data types (e.g., from character to numeric) to
ensure compatibility with analysis or modeling algorithms.

8. Documentation and Metadata Creation:


- Documenting the data preparation process is essential for reproducibility and
transparency. Create metadata documentation that describes the dataset, its variables, data
cleaning and transformation steps, and any assumptions or decisions made during the
process.
By following these steps in the data preparation process, analysts and data scientists can
ensure that the dataset is clean, structured, and ready for analysis or modeling, leading to
more accurate and reliable insights and predictions.

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