Forms of Data

Data in a spreadsheet

Long data: A dataset in which each row is one time point per subject, so each subject has data in multiple rows.

Wide data: A dataset in which every data subject has a single row with multiple columns to hold the values of various attributes of the subject.

Metadata

Metadata: Data about data; in database management, it helps data analysts interpret the contents of the data within a database.

Metadata repository: A database created to store metadata.

Different Types of Metadata

Administrative metadata: Metadata that indicates the technical source of a digital asset.

Descriptive metadata: Metadata that describes a piece of data and can be sued to identify it at a later point in time.

Normalized database: A database in which only related data is stored in each table.

Relational database: A database that contains a series of tables that can be connected to form relationships.

Foreign key: A field within a database table that is a primary key in another table.

Primary key: An identifier in a database that references a column in which each value is unique.

Structural metadata: Metadata that indicates how a piece of data is organized and whether it is part of one or more than one data collection.

Concepts Relating to Metadata

Redundancy: When the same piece of data is stored in two or more places.

Reframing: The process of restating a problem or challenge, then redirecting it toward a potential resolution.

Working with Metadata - SQL

Notebook: An interactive, editable programming environment for creating data reports and showcasing data skills

SELECT: The section of a query that indicates the subset of a dataset.

WHERE: The section of a query that specifies criteria that the requested data must meet.