Calculating derived and reduced variables

In this section, we will talk about specialized variables that you can create that will help you as a data analyst. You will find that raw data, even clean raw data, can be difficult to interpret. When looking at a functional dataset that is actively being used by a data analyst, you will almost always find variables that were not present when the data was originally recorded. Instead, these variables were added later and contain some logic that allows them to create a new value based on those that were recorded.

Derived variables

Variables that use logic that relies on other variables are broadly called derived variables, though some also refer to them as calculated variables or fields. The idea is just that this variable was not observed but was generated based on data that was observed. If this definition seems a little vague, that’s because it is. There are as many derived variables as there are stars in the sky and they come...