Not all data analysis tools are created equal.
Recently, I started looking into data sets to compete in Go Code Colorado (check it out if you live in CO). The problem with such diversity in data sets is finding a way to quickly visualize the data and do exploratory analysis. While tools like Tableau make data visualization extremely easy, the data isn’t always properly formatted to be easily consumed. Here’s are a few tips to help speed up your exploratory data analysis!
We’ll use data from two sources to aid with this example:
- Weekly events in Colorado (XML)
- Census data for Colorado (JSON, ShapeFile)
Picking the right tool
Always be able to answer the following before choosing a tool: