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Data Preprocessing

Data preprocessing is the preparation of raw data for analysis, addressing issues like incompleteness and errors to ensure usability. Key steps include data cleaning, integration, transformation, reduction, and discretization, all aimed at improving data quality and analysis performance. This process is essential for reliable insights and efficient decision-making.

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12 views2 pages

Data Preprocessing

Data preprocessing is the preparation of raw data for analysis, addressing issues like incompleteness and errors to ensure usability. Key steps include data cleaning, integration, transformation, reduction, and discretization, all aimed at improving data quality and analysis performance. This process is essential for reliable insights and efficient decision-making.

Uploaded by

maruffpathan
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Data Preprocessing

What is Data Preprocessing?


Data preprocessing is the process of preparing raw data for analysis or use in a system like
a data warehouse or machine learning model. Raw data is often incomplete, inconsistent, or
contains errors, so preprocessing ensures the data is clean and usable.

Steps in Data Preprocessing:

1. Data Cleaning
Fixes problems in the data to improve quality.

- Handling Missing Data: Filling missing values with averages or removing incomplete
records.
- Removing Noise: Eliminating outliers or irrelevant data.
- Correcting Errors: Fixing typos or duplicate records.

2. Data Integration
Combines data from multiple sources into a single, unified dataset.

Example: Merging data from sales, marketing, and customer databases.

3. Data Transformation
Converts data into a format suitable for analysis.

- Normalization: Scaling data to bring all values into the same range.
- Encoding: Converting categorical data (e.g., 'Yes'/'No') into numbers.

4. Data Reduction
Reduces the size of the data while keeping important information.

- Feature Selection: Keeping only the most relevant columns.


- Sampling: Using a smaller dataset that represents the full data.

5. Data Discretization
Converts continuous data into categories or intervals.

Example: Converting ages into groups like 'Teen,' 'Adult,' and 'Senior.'

Why is Data Preprocessing Important?


- Improves Data Quality: Ensures the data is accurate, complete, and consistent.
- Boosts Performance: Clean and transformed data leads to better analysis or model
performance.
- Saves Time: Reduces errors and rework during analysis.
Example:
If you have a dataset for customer purchases:
- Fill in missing values for age.
- Combine data from multiple stores.
- Normalize purchase amounts.
- Select only important columns like 'Product,' 'Price,' and 'Customer Age.'

Conclusion:
Data preprocessing is a crucial step to ensure reliable and efficient data analysis. It lays the
foundation for accurate insights and decisions.

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