Data pre-processing training series

Data pre-processing is a data mining technique that involves transforming raw data into an understandable format. With the increasing amount of data available for research and analysis, real-world data is often incomplete or inconsistent and thus not ready to be used directly. Multiple spreadsheets, missing values, typos, numbers shown as text, unnecessary columns… Data without adequate preparation will deliver poor or misleading findings. This is exemplified by the pithy data scientist phrase ‘GIGO’, which stands for ‘Garbage In Garbage Out’.  

These free events, organised by the UK Data Service, introduce data pre-processing and explain how to perform it as well as some of the issues people should be aware of. A data pre-processing workflow is covered, including steps on data integration, data cleaning, data reduction and data transformation. There will be two webinars then a coding demo session, for those who want a first-hand experience of putting the workflow into action via python.  

Webinar 1: Data Pre-processing: Introduction and Integration, 14 January: recording, slides

Webinar 2: Data Pre-processing: Clean, Reduce, Transform,  21 January: recording, slides

Online workshop: Data Pre-processing Methods in Python,  28 January: recording