With Q3 clean, Wren has a new question. "The paper forms started on day 3. Do the paper-form members visit as often as everyone else?"
Comet groans. "Do we have to read all 40 rows again?"
"What do you notice about the Q5 column?" Wren asks.
Comet looks. "It already says screen or paper. We could keep just the paper rows."
Keeper Ines leans over the desk. "And the council thinks in days, not weeks. Could you show visits per day?"
Nova hovers over the sheet. "Would you like a hint?" she asks. "Keeping some rows and changing every number are two different jobs. Do them one at a time."
Programs can process data to get information. Here are four common processes.
Transform: change every item the same way, such as doubling every number in a list.
Filter: keep only some items, such as only the positive numbers.
Combine or compare: for example, add up a list of numbers.
Visualize: show the data in a chart, graph or other picture.
Wren filters the sheet. He keeps only the rows where Q5 says paper form. Nine rows are left.
| ID | Q2 When | Q4 Visits last week | Visits per day (Q4 divided by 7) |
|---|---|---|---|
| M15 | morning | 7 | 1 |
| M16 | morning | 14 | 2 |
| M21 | morning | 7 | 1 |
| M22 | morning | 0 | 0 |
| M23 | afternoon | 7 | 1 |
| M30 | morning | 21 | 3 |
| M35 | afternoon | 7 | 1 |
| M36 | weekend | 14 | 2 |
| M37 | weekend | 7 | 1 |
This is made-up data from the Commons Count story.
The last column is a transform. Every Q4 number was divided by 7, the days in a week.
| Which process is it? | True or false? |
|---|---|
| Keeping only the paper-form rows is a filter. | ? |
| Dividing every Q4 number by 7 is a transform. | ? |
| Adding up the Q4 column is a way of combining data. | ? |
| Drawing a bar graph of the totals is a filter. | ? |
What you can do with data depends on your skills and your tools. The size of a data set affects how much information you can get from it.
Search tools find information fast. Filters help find patterns. Spreadsheets help organize data and find trends.
Nine rows are easy by hand. Thousands of rows would need a program.
Sharp thinking. Tomorrow is Impact Friday: when cleaning could erase a voice.