Data Analysis and Statistical
Description
Sources and Arrangemets of
Data
Raw data comes in various forms:
words, pictures, sounds, computarized bits and bytes, and ordinary numbers.
In order to be analyzed they have to be converted in to set of tables.
These arrangements are called data structures.
By far the most common data structures consist of observations on one or
more variables. In observations where people or objects are being examined
against time is called cross sectional.
By contrast, if the observations
represents periods of time, the data are referred as time
series.
Purpose of Data Analysis.
The reason why we analize data is to
condense a mass of information into summary
statistics; this condensation is called statistical
description. Another reason for analyzing
data is to examine the relationship between two or more valiables. Once
we determine the relationships among variables, we can forecast
the unknown value of the variable, when the
other variables are specified. However, this forecast represents only an
estimate or best guess, for this reason , it is useful to calculate the
probability of an estimate's accuracy using statistical
inference.
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