Cleaning Data

Definition

Cleaning data is the process of identifying and correcting or removing errors, inconsistencies, and inaccuracies in a dataset. It involves tasks like removing duplicate entries, handling missing values, and standardizing formats to ensure data quality.

Related terms

Data Validation: The process of ensuring that data meets certain criteria or rules defined by the user or system.

Data Preprocessing: A set of techniques used to prepare raw data for analysis by transforming it into a consistent format suitable for further processing.

Outliers: Data points that significantly deviate from the normal pattern or distribution within a dataset. Identifying outliers is an important step in cleaning data as they can affect statistical analyses.