Just One Little Thing
CLEAN CONSISTENT DATA...the hill I'm planting my flag on.
Who is learning SQL? That's right, THIS GIRL!! What does that have to do with having clean consistent data? Turns out just about everything!
SQL allows you to pull data and you can get pretty specific with it. You can basically ask it to return all records that contain a specific requirement. For instance, count how many records contains "Widget A"; sum up the cost of all records containing "Widget A" and so on.
Now imagine what happens if you are inconsistently naming "Widget A". In some places it's entered "Widg A", others "WidgetA", and yet others "A Widget". Now, unless your data is regularly reviewed for consistency, you will be getting inaccurate results from your data pulls. Basically, garbage in/garbage out.
If you're running a business of any kind, data is the foundation that informs your business decisions that drive growth, continuous improvement, identifing issues, etc. Make your data clean and consistent and you can make those decisions with confidence.
#smb
