As we’ve learned from the last section, within data lies valuable information that can be used to draw conclusions and drive relevant decisions. To get the most value out of your data, it’s important to prep it prior to starting any analysis.

When preparing data for analysis, the main goal is to structure it in a way that makes your subsequent analysis more efficient.

Generally, this includes making sure that:

• Each valuable variable to be measured has it's own, unique column
• Each of said variable columns in one standard data format
• A unique identifier for each row entry — meaning that at least one column has values that are unique to each row.

This last piece about a unique identifier becomes especially important when preparing the data for consumptions by other s...