Data Analysis and Database Fundamentals

This set of vocabulary flashcards covers essential terminologies in data analysis, big data characteristics, specific software tools like Excel and Tableau, Python libraries for data science, and fundamental relational database concepts including SQL joins.

Data

Information in its raw form, such as numbers, text, images, or videos, that is collected, stored, and processed for analysis.

Structured Data

Data that follows a predefined format, such as database tables and data stored in tables in Excel files.

Unstructured Data

Data that doesn't follow a predefined format, such as server log files and emails.

Big Data

Extremely large and complex datasets that require specialized tools and techniques for storage, processing, and analysis, often characterized by the "$3$" Vs: volume, velocity, and variety.

Database

An organized collection of data, typically stored and accessed electronically from a computer system, structured to allow efficient storage, retrieval, and management of information.

Data Dictionary

A documentation that provides a comprehensive description of the data elements, including their definitions, data types, formats, and relationships, used in a database or a data system.

Data Warehouse

A central repository that stores large amounts of data from different sources, typically used for data analysis, reporting, and decision-making purposes.

ETL (Extract, Transform, Load)

The process of extracting data from multiple sources, transforming it into a consistent format, and loading it into a data warehouse or another data repository for analysis.

Data Governance

The framework, policies, and procedures that ensure the quality, consistency, integrity, and security of data across an organization, including data standards, data management practices, and data security protocols.

Data Privacy

The protection of personal or sensitive information from unauthorized access, use, or disclosure, in compliance with relevant laws, regulations, and organizational policies.

Analysis

The process of examining, evaluating, and interpreting data to derive insights, identify patterns, and make informed decisions.

Descriptive Analysis

Also called Descriptive Statistics, this analysis focuses on describing and summarizing data through statistical measures such as mean, median, mode, standard deviation, and visualizations like charts and graphs.

Inferential Analysis

Also called Inferential Statistics, this analysis involves making predictions and drawing conclusions from data based on statistical techniques, such as hypothesis testing, regression analysis, and confidence intervals.

Data Visualization

The use of graphical representations, such as charts, graphs, and maps, to visually display data in a way that is easy to understand and interpret.

Data Cleansing

The process of identifying and correcting errors, inconsistencies, and inaccuracies in data, including missing values, duplicate entries, and formatting issues.

Data Mining

The process of discovering patterns, trends, and relationships in large datasets using techniques such as clustering, classification, and association analysis.

Data Wrangling

The process of transforming and preparing data for analysis, including data cleaning, data integration, data aggregation, and data formatting.

Dashboard

A type of data visualization that displays KPIs and other metrics and indicators in a single interface.

Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA)

The initial phase of data analysis that involves exploring and summarizing data to gain insights and identify patterns using techniques like data visualization and summary statistics.

Machine Learning

A subset of artificial intelligence (AI) that uses algorithms and statistical models to enable computers to learn from data and make predictions without being explicitly programmed.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Quantifiable metrics used to measure the performance of a business or process and track progress towards goals or objectives.

Predictive Analytics

The use of historical data, statistical algorithms, and machine learning techniques to forecast future outcomes or behaviors.

Data-driven Decision Making

Making decisions based on data and evidence rather than relying solely on intuition or subjective opinions.

Microsoft Excel

A widely used spreadsheet software that allows data analysts to perform basic data analysis tasks such as data cleaning, manipulation, and statistical analysis.

SQL

Structured Query Language; a common query language used to interact with relational databases for retrieving and manipulating data.

Tableau

A popular data visualization tool that allows data analysts to create interactive dashboards and reports to communicate insights and findings.

Power BI

A business intelligence tool from Microsoft used to create interactive and dynamic dashboards and reports with various data connectors.

Google Analytics

A web analytics tool that provides insights into website performance and user behavior, allowing analysts to track KPIs and trends.

Apache Spark

A fast and general-purpose cluster-computing framework used for big data processing, data preprocessing, and machine learning tasks.

Jupyter Notebook

An open-source web-based tool for creating and sharing live code, equations, visualizations, and narratives in a single document.

Alteryx

A data preparation software providing a code-free platform to cleanse, analyze, and visualize data from various sources.

R

A programming language and open-source software environment widely used for statistical computing, modeling, and graphics.

Cell

In Excel, a single rectangular box identified by a combination of a column letter and a row number (e.g., $A1$) used to store data or perform calculations.

Formula

In Excel, a sequence of mathematical or logical operations that starts with an equal sign ($=$) and calculates a value based on cell data.

Worksheet

Also known as a spreadsheet; a single tab within an Excel workbook consisting of a grid of cells arranged in columns and rows.

Workbook

An Excel file that contains one or more worksheets, acting as the primary container for data storage and management.

Pivot Table

An Excel feature that allows users to aggregate and analyze data by dragging and dropping fields from a dataset into different areas.

Python

One of the most popular programming languages in the world, used for applications including data analysis and data science.

Python package

A mechanism used to distribute reusable code to extend Python's capabilities, with many specifically facilitating data analysis.

Numpy

A Python package used to perform a wide variety of mathematical operations on arrays.

pandas

A Python package used for working with data sets, containing functions for analyzing, cleaning, exploring, and manipulating data.

matplotlib

A popular Python library used for creating charts.

seaborn

A data visualization library based on matplotlib.

ggplot

An alternative to matplotlib for Python which uses a syntax similar to the R ggplot2 library.

scikit-learn

A Python package used for machine learning.

Anaconda

A Python distribution containing a curated collection of libraries and tools for scientific computing, data science, and machine learning.

Column

Also known as a field or attribute, it represents a specific type of data within a database table, defined by a name and a data type.

Row

Also known as a record or tuple, it represents a single instance of data in a table containing a set of values corresponding to the table columns.

Primary Key

A unique identifier for a row in a table, which can be a single column or a combination of columns, used to ensure data integrity.

Foreign Key

A column or set of columns in a table that refers to the primary key of another table, used to establish relationships between tables.

Index

A database object that provides a fast and efficient way to look up data in a table based on column values to speed up query performance.

Query

A request for data from a database, usually written in SQL, used to retrieve (SELECT), add (INSERT), modify (UPDATE), or remove (DELETE) data.

View

A virtual table created by a predefined SQL query that doesn't store data itself, used for simplifying complex queries and controlling data access.

Transaction

A sequence of one or more database operations executed as a single unit of work to ensure atomic, consistent, isolated, and durable (ACID) operations.

SQL JOIN

A mechanism used in relational databases to combine data from two or more tables based on related columns.

INNER JOIN

A join that returns only the rows where there is a match in both tables based on the specified join condition.

LEFT JOIN

A join that returns all rows from the left table and matching rows from the right table, providing NULL values if there is no match in the right table.

RIGHT JOIN

A join that returns all rows from the right table and matching rows from the left table, providing NULL values if there is no match in the left table.

OUTER JOIN

Also known as a full join; returns all rows from both the left and right tables, using NULL values for any non-matching columns.

UNION

An operation used to merge rows from multiple tables or queries with the same column structure into a single result set without duplicates.

NULL

The absence of a value or the lack of any data in a particular database field; it is not the same as zero or a zero-length string.