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Glossary

Raw data

Data exactly as it was received or collected, before anything has been corrected, reformatted, or removed.

Keep the raw file untouched and do all cleaning on a copy. It is the only way to check a later result against what actually arrived, or to start again when a cleaning step turns out to be wrong.

See also

  • ProvenanceWhere a value came from and what has been done to it since: the source file, the steps applied, and who or what applied them.
  • Data cleaningFinding and correcting values in a dataset that are wrong, inconsistent, duplicated, or missing, so the data can be relied on.
  • Audit trailA record of what was changed in a dataset, when, and why, kept so that someone else can check the work later.

Karg checks for many of these when it profiles a file, applies the fixes it is confident about, and sets the rest aside for your review. See how it works, or have our team clean your data for you.