{"id":3604,"date":"2023-08-30T13:07:42","date_gmt":"2023-08-30T13:07:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businessyield.com\/tech\/?p=3604"},"modified":"2023-08-30T13:07:45","modified_gmt":"2023-08-30T13:07:45","slug":"data-profiling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businessyield.com\/tech\/technology\/data-profiling\/","title":{"rendered":"DATA PROFILING: What It Is, Processes, Tools & Best Practices","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"

Without data profiling, or analyzing source data for substance and quality, data processing and analysis are not possible. It is becoming more vital as data sizes grow and cloud computing becomes the norm for IT infrastructure. You need to profile massive amounts of data but are short on time or money. Read on to learn more about data profiling tools and how to make use of them. Some examples are also added to the article for better understanding of it all.<\/p>

Enjoy the ride!<\/p>

Basics of Data Profiling<\/span><\/h2>

Data profiling is the practice of investigating, evaluating, and synthesizing information. Data quality issues, risks, and general trends can thus be more easily identified thanks to this process’s output of a high-level overview. The results of data profiling also provide invaluable information that businesses can use to their advantage.<\/p>

Data profiling, to be more precise, is the process of evaluating the reliability and accuracy of information. The analytical algorithms find the mean, lowest, maximum, percentile, and frequency of a dataset to analyze it thoroughly. Metadata such as frequency distributions, key relationships, foreign key candidates, and functional dependencies are then uncovered by the analysis. Finally, it takes all of this data into account to show you how well those elements correspond to your company’s expectations and aims.<\/p>

Common yet expensive mistakes in consumer databases can also be remedied via data profiling. Null values (unknown or missing values), values that shouldn’t be there, values with an unusually high or low frequency, values that don’t fit expected patterns, and values outside the normal range are all examples of these errors.<\/p>

Types of Data Profiling<\/span><\/h3>

Data profiling can be broken down into three categories:<\/p>

#1. Structure Discovery<\/span><\/h4>

Checking the data for mathematical errors (such as a missing value or an incorrect decimal place) and making sure the data is consistent and presented correctly. Structure discovery aids in determining the quality of data structure, such as the proportion of incorrectly formatted phone numbers. <\/p>

#2. Content Discovery<\/span><\/h4>

The process of inspecting data record by record in search of mistakes. Data errors, such as missing area codes or invalid email addresses, can be discovered with the use of content discovery.<\/p>

#3. Relationship Discovery<\/span><\/h4>

Learning the interconnections between data elements. Key associations in a database, or cell or table references in a spreadsheet, are two such examples. When importing or merging linked data sources, it is critical to keep the connections between the data sets intact.<\/p>

Data Profiling Techniques<\/span><\/h2>

Data profiling includes not only types but also approaches that can be applied to validating data, keeping track of dependencies, and other similar tasks, regardless of the specific method being utilized. The following are some of the more popular ones:<\/p>

#1. Profiling Columns<\/span><\/h3>

Column profiling is a technique that counts how often a specific value appears in each column by scanning the entire column. You can use this data to spot trends and common values.<\/p>

#2. Cross-Column Profiling<\/span><\/h3>

Key analysis and dependency analysis are the two components of cross-column profiling. The purpose of key analysis is to locate potential primary keys in table columns. Finding patterns or connections in a dataset is the goal of dependency analysis. Collectively, these steps expose intercellular relationships within the same table.<\/p>

#3. Cross-Table Profiling<\/span><\/h3>

To establish connections between fields in several databases, cross-table profiling uses foreign key analysis. As a result, you may see interdependencies more clearly and identify disparate data sets that can be mapped together to speed up research. In addition to revealing redundant information, cross-table profiling can reveal syntactic or semantic discrepancies between linked datasets.<\/p>

#4. Data Rule Validation<\/span><\/h3>

Data rule validation is a process that ensures data values and tables follow predetermined rules for data storage and presentation. The tests give engineers insight into weak points in the data so they can strengthen them.<\/p>

Data Profiling Examples<\/span><\/h2>

There are a variety of situations in which data profiling can help businesses better understand and manage their data. The following are some examples of data profiling:<\/p>

#1. Consolidation through Purchasing<\/span><\/h3>

Your company merges with an industry rival in this example. You can now mine a whole new trove of information for previously unattainable insights and untapped markets. However, you must first combine this information with what you already have.<\/p>

New data assets and their interdependencies can be better understood with the help of a data profile. The data team can then attempt to standardize the data’s format after data profiling reveals where it differs from the old data and where duplicates exist between the two systems. The time has come to combine and standardize the data for use.<\/p>

#2. Data Warehousing<\/span><\/h3>

When a company builds a data warehouse, its goal is to centralize and standardize data from many sources so that it can be quickly accessed and analyzed. If the data is of low quality, though, simply collecting it in one place won’t help. Poor information results in subpar judgment.<\/p>

The data quality in a data warehouse can be monitored with the help of data profiling. It can also be used before or during the data intake process to ensure the data’s integrity and compliance with data rules as information is gathered, generally in an ETL process. Now that you have gathered all of your organization’s data in one place, you can make decisions with confidence.<\/p>

Data Profiling and Data Quality Analysis Best Practices<\/span><\/h2>

The following are basic data profiling techniques:<\/p>

#1. Distinct Count and Percent<\/span><\/h3>

Finds the natural keys, which are the unique numbers in each column that can help with inserts and updates. Useful for tables that don’t have headings.<\/p>

#2. Percent of Zero, Blank or Null Values<\/span><\/h3>

Identifies information that is missing or unknown. Default value assistance for ETL architects.<\/p>

#3. Minimum, Maximum, and Average String Length<\/span><\/h3>

Facilitates the choice of a suitable data type and size for the intended database. It also makes it possible to optimize efficiency by setting column widths to the exact lengths required by the data.<\/p>

Advanced data profiling techniques:<\/p>

#1. Key Reliability <\/span><\/h3>

Use zero-based, blank-value, or null-analysis to guarantee that crucial values are consistently available. Also useful for locating ETL and analysis-related orphan keys.<\/p>

#2. Cardinality<\/span><\/h3>

verification of connections between related datasets, including one-to-one, one-to-many, and many-to-many. This aids BI tools in making the appropriate inner or outer connections.<\/p>

#3. Pattern and frequency distributions<\/span><\/h3>

Validates the correctness of the format of data fields, such as emails, to ensure they may be used. The fields required for outbound communication (email, phone, and physical address) are crucial.<\/p>

Data Profiling Tools<\/span><\/h2>

Data profiling is a time-consuming and manual process, but it may be automated with the right software to facilitate large-scale data projects. You cannot have a data analytics stack without them. The following are some tools you can use for data profiling:<\/p>

#1. Quadient DataCleaner<\/span><\/h3>

Features:<\/p>