28 lines
2.0 KiB
Plaintext
28 lines
2.0 KiB
Plaintext
# (PART) Explore {.unnumbered}
|
|
|
|
# Introduction {#explore-intro}
|
|
|
|
The goal of the first part of this book is to get you up to speed with the basic tools of **data exploration** as quickly as possible.
|
|
Data exploration is the art of looking at your data, rapidly generating hypotheses, quickly testing them, then repeating again and again and again.
|
|
The goal of data exploration is to generate many promising leads that you can later explore in more depth.
|
|
|
|
```{r echo = FALSE, out.width = "75%"}
|
|
knitr::include_graphics("diagrams/data-science-explore.png")
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
In this part of the book you will learn some useful tools that have an immediate payoff:
|
|
|
|
- Visualisation is a great place to start with R programming, because the payoff is so clear: you get to make elegant and informative plots that help you understand data.
|
|
In [data visualisation] you'll dive into visualisation, learning the basic structure of a ggplot2 plot, and powerful techniques for turning data into plots.
|
|
|
|
- Visualisation alone is typically not enough, so in [data transformation] you'll learn the key verbs that allow you to select important variables, filter out key observations, create new variables, and compute summaries.
|
|
|
|
- Finally, in [exploratory data analysis], you'll combine visualisation and transformation with your curiosity and scepticism to ask and answer interesting questions about data.
|
|
|
|
Modelling is an important part of the exploratory process, but you don't have the skills to effectively learn or apply it yet.
|
|
We'll come back to it in [modelling](#model-intro), once you're better equipped with more data wrangling and programming tools.
|
|
|
|
Nestled among these three chapters that teach you the tools of exploration are three chapters that focus on your R workflow.
|
|
In [workflow: basics], [workflow: scripts], and [workflow: projects] you'll learn good practices for writing and organising your R code.
|
|
These will set you up for success in the long run, as they'll give you the tools to stay organised when you tackle real projects.
|