YouTube Transcript:
What is a Dataset?

hello and welcome to another of our mmu
q-step video tutorials today we're going
to be looking at data sets
and asking what they are and why they're
important
data sets are just our way of storing
data
they make analyzing the data easier and
they make it possible to store our data
securely and efficiently you might have
seen a data set
or spreadsheet before before they look
like an indecipherable jumble of numbers
that only someone like data derek could
understand
but you'll soon see that there's nothing
to worry about
data sets are made up of rows and
columns
for a survey you'll find the variables
are the columns across the top
while each individual's responses to the
survey
are filled in across the row
imagine you've just carried out a survey
and you've got a huge stack of responses
how are you gonna store them well if you
had say a hundred surveys
you might be able to store them in a
filing cabinet
but please don't do this it's really
important to keep your data
secure and confidential at all times
so while you could technically store 100
surveys in a filing cabinet
once the number of surveys increases
that becomes much more difficult
suppose we have 50 000 survey responses
how might you store that many surveys
no although that is how a lot of
organizations have done in the past
because they're scared about using data
sets
a data set can help you store hundreds
of thousands of surveys
which is not only great for decluttering
your room but it also makes analyzing
your data
exponentially easier
without a data set even do an analysis
as simple as finding
what percentage of respondents answered
yes to a question
would require you to sift through
surveys counting them one by one
which would be both time consuming and
potentially inaccurate
whereas if your surveys are stored in a
data set
then you can use a statistical program
to do all your analysis for you
and with just one click you'll get that
percentage spot on
and it opens up possibilities of doing
all kinds of fancy analysis
which you'd never be able to do by hand
so thanks for watching another of our
mmu q-step video tutorials
hopefully you've seen what a data set is
and why it's important
and we'll see you next time