Introduction to Data Exploration

Data exploration is often the first step needed in designing and developing a data warehouse solution, as it allows you to grasp the nature of your raw data and plan for the transformations needed. To explore your data effectively, you need to know not only what your data contains but also how the data is organized and stored. You also need to know what tools and methods you can use to access and analyze your data. This is why you need a data catalog. A data catalog is a document that describes the sources, locations, formats, and features of your data, helping you to find, know, and use your data consistently and efficiently.

Later in the data exploration process, making changes to the structure of a table in a data source, for instance, will require knowing what tasks and data structures will be impacted by this change. This refers to modifications made to the way data is organized within your Database or Data Warehouse and this could involve actions...