Are we analyzing data via computer programming?

To benefit most from the two modules that we will cover in this chapter, we need to understand what they really are and what we are really doing when we use them. I am sure whoever is in the business of content development for data analytics using Python, including me (guilty as charged), would tell you that when you use these modules to manipulate your data, you are analyzing your data using computer programming. However, what you are actually doing is not computer programming. The computer programming part has already been done for the most part. In fact, this has been done by the top-notch programmers who put together these invaluable packages. What you do is use their code made available to you as programming objects and functions under these modules. Well, if I am being completely honest, you are doing a tad bit of computer programming, but just enough to access the good stuff (these modules). Thanks to these modules, you will not experience any difficulty in analyzing data using computer programming.

So, before embarking on your journey in this chapter and this book, remember this: for the most part, our job as data analysts is to connect three things – our business problem, our data, and technology. The technology could be commercial software such as Excel or Tableau, or, in the case of this book, these modules.