What does data preparation typically involve?

Data preparation is a critical step in the data analysis process that focuses on transforming raw data into a suitable format for analysis. It encompasses various tasks necessary for ensuring the data is accurate, complete, and ready for further exploration. This typically includes cleaning the data to correct inaccuracies or remove duplicates, formatting it to fit the requirements of the analysis tools, and organizing it in a structured manner that allows for efficient analysis.

By focusing on cleaning, formatting, and organizing, data preparation ensures the data is high quality and usable. This step lays the foundation for successful data analysis, as poorly prepared data can lead to misleading results and interpretations.

Gathering more data points, while important, is not considered part of data preparation. It may occur before or after the preparation process but does not directly involve the transformation and organization of existing data. Presenting data in visual formats falls into the realm of data visualization, which is an entirely different phase following analysis. Conducting competitive analysis focuses on benchmarking against other entities and does not pertain to preparing data for analysis.