Skip to content

A Daily Lexicon of Trustworthy Data

005·76

data profiling

/ˈdeɪ.tə ˈproʊ.faɪl.ɪŋ/ - n.

1 [colloq.] The one-time exercise of learning what the data actually contains, scheduled for after launch.Keep. Punchy.This is the problem.

Working definition

2. The systematic examination of a dataset's structure, content, and statistics to discover its true shape, ranges, patterns, and anomalies.

Evidence

See also

anomaly detectionA system that reliably notices the unusual and forwards it to an inbox that treats everything as usual.
data cleansingRepairing the data instead of the system that keeps breaking it, monthly, in perpetuity.
data quality ruleA test that fires, raises a ticket, and waits to learn whether anyone meant it.