Data Analysis

Essay by bouquiUniversity, Bachelor'sD+, September 2006

download word file, 1 pages 2.8 1 reviews

Downloaded 65 times

Data Analysis, the processing of data to extract useful information and reveal significant patterns. A general set of data can otherwise appear meaningless or, at the least, obscure. There are many different ways in which such analyses can be performed, but most of them involve the production of graphs and charts. Data analysis is important in many fields, ranging from economics and sociology to the natural sciences.

For instance, finance- annual expenditure of a local government authority. Presenting vast numbers of individual items would not convey to taxpayers how their money was being spent. A first stage in analysis would be to group the raw data under headings such as Refuse Collection and Disposal, Housing, road construction.

Even more useful would be a further analysis to turn this into a pie chart, data flow diagrams in which each category is represented by a sector of a circle, giving a visual indication of the sizes of the various local government commitments.

The advent of the computer and the rapid development of software have revolutionized data analysis. Vast quantities of data can be processed in seconds by spreadsheet programs and graphical programs.