Summary
In this chapter, we learned about data wrangling and manipulation methods, or how to change your data into something you can use. We covered the different methods of merging data such as joins, blends, concatenation, and appending, and discussed the creation of new variables to help you, such as derived or reduced variables. Next, we discussed parsing data to break it down into little chunks. Then, we covered recoding variables, or changing current variables into a form you can use. Finally, we went over a list of common tools you can find in any analytical program that will help you in your work as a data analyst.
This wraps up Part 1, which was all about the preparation of data. Coming up in Part 2, we will start looking at analyzing data, and what you can do to learn more from it.
Pretty exciting, right? I’ll see you in the next chapter.