What Is Data Exploration?
Data is stored in databases as bits and bytes, spread through tables and columns, in memory and on disk. Data lands there through various business processes. Operational databases capture the data as it is collected from customers—as they make airplane reservations, or complete telephone calls, or click on the web, or as their bills are generated. The databases used for data analysis are usually decision support databases and data warehouses where the data has been restructured and cleansed to conform to some view of the business.
Data exploration is the process of characterizing the data actually present in a database and understanding the relationships between various columns and entities. Data exploration is a hands-on effort. Metadata, documentation that explains what should be there, provides one description. Data exploration is about understanding what actually is there, and, if possible, understanding how and why it got there. Data exploration is...