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Sometimes tables are messy not just in their data items, but also in the fields that define the table columns.[1]  Various techniques help to deal with such “second order” messiness.  Sorting table fields alphabetically or evaluating them with more powerful text similarity measures help to identify inadvertently duplicated fields. Sorting table fields by the number … Continue reading exploring and remodeling table fields

Even in this age of big data, most persons collect data in spreadsheets.  Two challenges are common with spreadsheet data, particularly spreadsheet data collected from a variety of sources.  First, you need to understand what numbers you have.  That means both the definition of a specific number and the presence or absence of particular numbers.  … Continue reading describing and organizing spreadsheet data