5 data cleansing techniques you need to know
Introduction
Data cleansing is spotting the issues and then systematically correcting them using data cleansing services. If the data cannot get fixed, you need to erase the wrong elements to clean your data correctly.
The unclean data results from a human error, scraping data or combining data from various sources. You must clean the insufficient data before starting an analysis, especially running it through machine learning models.
It can give misleading insights that can be devastating while taking major business decisions.
Eradicate trivial observations
It is normal to have duplicate entries when you assemble your data from different places or scrape your data.
These duplicates could stem from human error, where the person gives an input of data or makes a mistake while filling out a form. Duplicates automatically skew your data or confuse the results.
They can also make the process of reading data hard when you want to visualize it. So it is best to remove the duplicates using data cleansing services.
Remove unwanted data
Unwanted data will be slower and confuse any analysis you want. It is essential to decipher what is relevant and what’s not before you begin the data cleaning using a database cleaning service.
For example, if you are analyzing your clients’ age range, you don’t need to include their email addresses.
There are many other things, such as PII data, URLs, HTML tags, boilerplate text, tracking codes, excessive blank space between text.
Standardize capitalization
You must ensure that the text is consistent. If you have an amalgamation of capitalization, this could create different wrong categories.
It can also create problems when you need to translate before processing, as capitalization can alter the meaning. For example, Bill can be a person’s name or something else.
You also include text cleaning and data cleaning to process your data with a computer model. Also, it is much easier to place everything in lowercase.
Transform data types
Numbers are the most common data type you will need to convert while swiping your data. Also, the numbers are attributed as text, although, to be processed, they need to look like numerals.
If they look just like text, they are categorized as sting, and your analysis algorithm can not perform mathematical equations.
The same is correct for dates that are stored as text. These should all be attributed to numerals using data cleansing services. For example, if you have any entry that says 28th October 2022, you will need to alter that to 28-10-2022.
Fix errors
You must cautiously remove any errors from your data. Errors as little as typos can lead you to miss out on crucial searches from your data.
Some of these can be removed with a quick spell check. Spelling errors or extra punctuation in data like an email address can result in missing out on communicating with your clients.
It can also lead you to send incorrect emails to people who still need to sign up for them. There can be an occurrence of inconsistencies in formatting.
The database cleaning process can be a bit tedious and time-consuming. However, if you miss this step, it will cost you more than just time. Unclean data can open pandora’s box. Your computer can become a host of issues, so you must clean it before beginning your analysis. After cleaning the data, you will need the right tools and data cleansing services to analyze this information. AI and machine learning will enable a range of tools for efficient analysis.
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