What is Data ?

Data is a word we hear everywhere nowadays. In general, data is a collection of facts, information, and statistics and this can be in various forms such as numbers, text, sound, images, or any other format.

In this article, we will learn about What is Data, the Types of Data, Importance of Data, and the features of data.

What is Data?

According to the Oxford “Data is distinct pieces of information, usually formatted in a special way”. Data can be measured, collected, reported, and analyzed, whereupon it is often visualized using graphs, images, or other analysis tools. Raw data (“unprocessed data”) may be a collection of numbers or characters before it’s been “cleaned” and corrected by researchers. It must be corrected so that we can remove outliers, instruments, or data entry errors. Data processing commonly occurs in stages, and therefore the “processed data” from one stage could also be considered the “raw data” of subsequent stages. Field data is data that’s collected in an uncontrolled “in situ” environment. Experimental data is the data that is generated within the observation of scientific investigations. Data can be generated by:

• Humans
• Machines
• Human-Machine combines.

It can often generated anywhere where any information is generated and stored in structured or unstructured formats.

What is Information ?

Information is data that has been processed , organized, or structured in a way that makes it meaningful, valuable and useful. It is data that has been given context , relevance and purpose. It gives knowledge, understanding and insights that can be used for decision-making , problem-solving, communication and various other purposes.

Why data is important ?

• Data helps in make better decisions.
• Data helps in solve problems by finding the reason for underperformance.
• Data helps one to evaluate the performance.
• Data helps one improve processes.
• Data helps one understand consumers and the market.

Categories of Data

Data can be catogeries into two main parts –

• Structured Data: This type of data is organized data into specific format, making it easy to search , analyze and process. Structured data is found in a relational databases that includes information like numbers, data and categories.
• UnStructured Data: Unstructured data does not conform to a specific structure or format. It may include some text documents , images, videos, and other data that is not easily organized or analyzed without additional processing.

Types of Data

Generally data can be classified into two parts:

1. Categorial Data: In categorical data we see the data which have a defined category, for example:
   • Marital Status
   • Political Party
   • Eye colour
2. Numerical Data: Numerical data can further be classified into two categories:
   • Discrete Data: Discrete data contains the data which have discrete numerical values for example Number of Children, Defects per Hour etc.
   • Continuous Data: Continuous data contains the data which have continuous numerical values for example Weight, Voltage etc.
3. Nominal Scale: A nominal scale classifies data into several distinct categories in which no ranking criteria is implied. For example Gender, Marital Status.
4. Ordinary Scale: An ordinal scale classifies data into distinct categories during which ranking is implied For example:
   • Faculty rank : Professor, Associate Professor, Assistant Professor
   • Students grade : A, B, C, D.E.F
5. Interval scale: An interval scale may be an ordered scale during which the difference between measurements is a meaningful quantity but the measurements don’t have a true zero point. For example:
   • Temperature in Fahrenheit and Celsius.
   • Years
6. Ratio scale: A ratio scale may be an ordered scale during which the difference between the measurements is a meaningful quantity and therefore the measurements have a true zero point. Hence, we can perform arithmetic operations on real scale data. For example : Weight, Age, Salary etc.

What is the Data Processing Cycle?

The data processing cycle refers to the iterative sequence of transformations applied to raw data to generate meaningful insights. It can be viewed as a pipeline with distinct stages:

1. Data Acquisition: This stage encompasses the methods used to collect raw data from various sources. This could involve sensor readings, scraping web data, or gathering information through surveys and application logs.
2. Data Preparation: Raw data is inherently messy and requires cleaning and pre-processing before analysis. This stage involves tasks like identifying and handling missing values, correcting inconsistencies, formatting data into a consistent structure, and potentially removing outliers.
3. Data Input: The pre-processed data is loaded into a system suitable for further processing and analysis. This often involves converting the data into a machine-readable format and storing it in a database or data warehouse.
4. Data Processing: Here, the data undergoes various manipulations and transformations to extract valuable information. This may include aggregation, filtering, sorting, feature engineering (creating new features from existing ones), and applying machine learning algorithms to uncover patterns and relationships.
5. Data Output: The transformed data is then analyzed using various techniques to generate insights and knowledge. This could involve statistical analysis, visualization techniques, or building predictive models.
6. Data Storage: The processed data and the generated outputs are stored in a secure and accessible format for future use, reference, or feeding into further analysis cycles.

The data processing cycle is iterative, meaning the output from one stage can become the input for another. This allows for continuous refinement, deeper analysis, and the creation of increasingly sophisticated insights from the raw data.

How Do We Analyze Data?

Data analysis constitutes the main step of data cycle in which we discover knowledge and meaningful information from raw data. It’s like reaching deep into the hands of a sand pile, looking for those gems. Here’s a breakdown of the key aspects involved:Here’s a breakdown of the key aspects involved:

1. Define Goals and Questions

To begin with, analyze what you need the data for, or in other words, determine your goals. Are you trying to do seasonal line ups, determine customer behavior or make forecasting?Clearly defined goals, indeed practical analysis techniques will be the key factor to ensure alignment to them.

2. Choose the Right Techniques

Actually, there are so many techniques of data analysis making the mind overwhelmed to choose the appropriate ones. Here are some common approaches:Here are some common approaches:

• Statistical Analysis: Here, you are able to explore measures like mean, median, standard deviation and hypothesis testing to summarize and prepare data. Among the means to investigate causal factors, it reveals these relationships.
• Machine Learning: Algorithms depend on a priori data to discover behaviors and predictively act. It is for these jobs that the categorization (the task of classifying data points) and regression (the job of prediction of a continuous value) of the data fits well.
• Data Mining: What’s more, it means the exploration of unknown behaviors and occurrences in immense clusters of data. Techniques like association rule learning and clustering cater for identification of latent connections.
• Data Visualization: Charts, graphs, and dashboards which happen to be tools of visualization of data, make easy identifying patterns, trends, and disclosures that would seem to be unclear in raw numbers

3. Explore and Clean the Data

Prior to engaging in any kind of deep analysis, it is vital to grasp the nature of data. EDA takes under analysis the construction of profiles, discovery of missing values, and graphing distributions, in order to figure out what the entire data are about. The data cleaning process allows you to correct inconsistencies, errors and missing values which helps to produce a clear picture based on high quality information.

4. Perform the Analysis

Once all the techniques have been chosen and the data cleaning took place then you can go straight to the data processing itself. Among other techniques, this could encompass performing certain tests, which can be advanced regression or machine learning algorithms, or well-crafted data visualisations.

5. Interpret the Results

You should extract the meaning of the analytics carefully as they are specific to the objectives you have set for yourself. Do not just build the model, show what they signify, make a point by your analysis limitations, and use your starting questions to make the conclusions

6. Communicate Insights

Data analysis is customarily done to advance the decision making. Communicate findings truthfully to all stakeholders such as through means of reports, presentations or interactive charts.

Top 10 Jobs in Data

10 popular jobs in data, categorized based on their area of focus:

• Data Science & Machine Learning
  • Data Scientist: Data is the star of the data world, and data scientists use their knowledge of statistics, programming and machine learning to interpret and build relationships, or predict the future.
  • Machine Learning Engineer: Among these professionals are the ones, who usually deal with the generating, deploying and maintaining of cycle learning models to solve some important business issues.
• Data Engineering & Architecture
  • Data Engineer: These people are the data wranglers!!Engineers of data design and maintain the structure which allows entry of data, facilitating efficient processing and storage.
  • Data Architect: Those people create data management approach for the business in general, thus, making sure that the data is constant, secure and scalable.
• Data Analysis & Business Intelligence
  • Data Analyst: The data analysts considered important aspects like data leakage, data former, and data mining to help them in decision making.
  • Business Intelligence Analyst: They are the ones within the organization that turn the translated key data information into practical recommendations for increased performance of the organization.
• Other Data-Driven Fields
  • Marketing Analyst: The role marketing analysts play in harnessing data is like in the sense that, it enables them to know how the customer behaves, make campaign evaluations and also to strategically bring improvements to marketing models.
  • Financial Analyst: They utilize information to measure financial risk and returns, provide advice for investment purposes and financial decision-making.
  • Quantitative Analyst: As a matter of fact, through applying complex financial math models and analytic, they conduct qualitative and quantitative analyses of financial risks and devise trading strategies.
  • Data Security Analyst: Their job is to secure sensitive data from unauthorized access, data breach, and more cybersecurity challenges.

Conclusion

Data becomes valuable when it is processed, analyzed, and interpreted to extract meaningful insights or information. This process involves various techniques and tools, such as data mining , data analytics, and machine learning.