What are /r/dataanalysis' favorite Products & Services?

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Power BI desktop is free. Power BI online is free, for the reporting services (you really need the desktop app to open the power of Power BI).

As a student, you can get Tableau for free: https://www.tableau.com/academic/students

So, really, they are both free, if you are a university student. Power BI is free, whether you are a student or not. It begins to cost money when you want to share what you make. (not just share the pbix file around).

I would approach this by writing up a parser in Python probably. If you want to learn how to do that find yourself a copy of "Automate the Boring Stuff with Python."

For your immediate problem, maybe try this?

https://docparser.com/blog/pdf-to-database/

I use VS Code for javascript, python, and SQL. I use VS for C#. I don't really work with C and C++, but I've used VS Code with this extension:

https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/languages/cpp

back when I was taking cs50x and it worked though I preferred something like CLion, but that was just me.

Well I’m not sure what companies but if you love data, enjoy telling stories with it and you want to make great money I would look into Tableau Desktop certification. Not sure if you know what tableau is or not but it’s in high demand right now (Power BI is as well but not as much). Adding a tableau desktop certification to your resume will make you stand out.

A ton of organizations are using Salesforce/tableau or some kind of analytics/intelligence tool.

https://www.tableau.com/learn/certification

I’m currently a business intelligence analyst with about 10 years of experience as a BA and BIA. I have a few tableau certifications myself. I was tasked with hiring an entry analyst to work with me and I found a few right out of college. There was 1 of them that had a tableau cert and power bi experience so after interviewing all 3, the person with the cert was my choice.

I also am a member of the IIBA. You don’t have to do that but it’s a good path.

https://www.iiba.org/business-analysis-certifications/iiba-certifications/

Best of luck buddy

Have you looked at Udacity's Data Analyst Nanodegree Program - https://www.udacity.com/course/data-analyst-nanodegree--nd002

Not university based, but I found it comprehensive and challenging. There are assignments and case studies that you can work on. It is a bit on the pricier side compared to udemy and others but I did the course and I liked their structure and the course material. They also have resume services to help you write a DA resume.

Please bear in mind, while it is comprehensive it is learning more from a business / work side of things. It omits quite a few statistical concepts and python coding if you're after an in-depth learning

If you're interested in an introduction to causal inference (i.e., "What is the causal effect of X on Y?"), The Mixtape with Scott podcast with Scott Cunningham is very accessible to someone new to the field. He also has a beginner-level text:

https://www.amazon.com/Causal-Inference-Mixtape-Scott-Cunningham/dp/0300251688/

A more advanced text covering similar topics:

https://www.amazon.com/Mostly-Harmless-Econometrics-Empiricists-Companion/dp/0691120358/

The first book just assumes a lower division "Intro to Stats" background, whereas the second one is more of a Masters-level text (i.e., someone who has taken an upper-division Econometrics course). If you're asking this type of question, I suspect the first one will be more appropriate to start with.

This book sits on my desk at work... there are many books like it... but this book is what I use.

https://www.amazon.com/Big-Picture-Visualization-Better-Decisions_Faster/dp/126047352X/

I think you need to realize that you have a split second to provide information to users before they go off and look at pictures of cats. Take some of your ideas for data and make that item that will give me enough information in a glance.

I'm chugging through this little book.

The SPC Book - Statistical Process Control

https://www.amazon.com/SPC-Book-Statistical-Process-Control/dp/0969678622

I thought maybe it’s because I didn’t set up miniconda like this guy did at first but it won’t let me update that for some reason. I’m trying to have the environment look like how this guys look in his variables subheading. Like how he has green arrows, for some reason mines won’t look like that. https://www.notion.so/Python-for-Data-Analysts-185903ebc850452abb81fae7049661e8#4e9d2b07c7c94ee5ab58519cca05ff1a

I like to use different mediums for learning to get some variety. It keeps me from burning out and have things overload my mind.

I learned from Zelle's book: https://www.amazon.ca/Python-Programming-Introduction-Computer-Science/dp/1887902996

I bought a used physical copy. It looks like a big tome, but it's actually quite quick and rewarding to go through. Good luck.

I had this Business Analytics for an intro class I took at my local community college and I read through it often. I think it is pretty good.

I’ll be honest if you are Quick to learn and put in like six hours a day you can master SQL in 10 days. I graduated with a degree in MIS, I have taken like 4 programming courses, so I had a really good grasp of the fundamentals of programming. Took me 4 days of practice to get good enough to do leetcode mediums for SQL.

https://youtu.be/vaD3ZFFNwhM this person learned SQL from scratch in 1 week I believe, her other vids are super helpful as well.

Tableau is pretty challenging at first, especially if you are someone who doesn’t really know how to start projects/assignments. “Storytelling With Data: A Data Visualization Guide for Business Professionals” by Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic is a good starting point, then https://www.tableau.com/learn/training/20211 for a good place to learn Tableau specific skills.

Entry level expect some level of skills but if u think u need master level proficiency you’re mistaken.

I'm nearing the end of the Google certificate, and if you've already done some SQL and Tableau I don't think it's going to add a lot for you. The courses include a lot of talk about soft skills, congratulating you for making progress, and advice about job search things like working up your LinkedIn profile. It's kind of fluff, but could really be helpful if you feel like you need coaching in that area. I think you're probably going to get more mileage out of small specialized courses.

Also, I see from the comments that your degrees are in biology and physical therapy. As someone with a degree in religious studies, I'm sorry, those are not "unrelated" degrees.

I did a class last winter that used Python, and just completed the Google Certificate course on R. It mostly uses R as a fancy graphing application, and doesn't get into programming/computer science at all. Having experienced a bit of both, I somewhat prefer R for data analysis. In addition to the Google course I'm reading this book, which I enjoyed despite some of it going completely over my head, but with your background it should be perfect: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BU34QTM/ref=kinw_myk_ro_title

No substitutes for experience & time-on-task. Absent coursework or training, it can be helpful to look at data interactively with specific questions in mind while thinking critically about what someone else has already done with that data. In other words, watch/listen to/read about someone else analyzing data and describing their process and its results.

As a beginning, try carefully reading Spiegelhalter's Art of Statistics while following along doing the data analyses, making the graphs, etc.--his datasets are available free on github (urls to all the materials are in the book, or just google)

I’m in the beginning of the process of compiling all the possible certifications to break into the field. From what I’ve read, the official Microsoft or Tableau certificates would be the most respected:

Microsoft Certified: Power BI Data Analyst Associate

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/certifications/power-bi-data-analyst-associate/

Get Tableau Certified

https://www.tableau.com/learn/certification

Both seem to have great resources to learn and are between $150 and $250 each. You could always learn most of either for free on YouTube or coursera, and even get certified on coursera for cheaper than the official sites, but probably won’t appear as professional as the official certifications. I plan on posting an exhaustive list of the certifications I plan on getting relatively soon.

Sure thing. This is the one I have. There are quite a few different options though. My work laptop and personal laptop both can run with just the usb-c port for video and power on this. Zissu's 15.8” Portable Monitor... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08M66HDCS?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

just know that sitting down litterally kills. Just looks at studies.

That aside, it doesnt seem like a bad plan. But if I were you I would go the masters route. Will also give you an opportunity for an internship.

Storytelling with Data is the best book I've read on this topic. I have about five currently in my personal library and this is the only one I recommend to coworkers anymore.

I learned to use pandas in 2015. I left like a really started to get it last week, not even kidding.

Side note: Effective Pandas by Matt Harrison is an incredible resource and will change the way you do things. I'd never go back to the way I did things before reading it

I think there is a little difference between knowing statistics (how it works) and understanding statistics (how to use it). I know a few books about what is statistics, how it is used, and cases, but they all are in spanish :( but surely there are the same kind of books in english and another languages.

Here is one book I've read and I think could answers some of the questions we are asking:

https://www.amazon.com/-/es/Walter-Sosa-Escudero-ebook/dp/B081VTP2T1

JavaScript and XML are both ways for you to extract data. XML documents are a semi-structured form that retains some hierarchical data within it. You can find and export some maps data examples here.

I think the JS has data scraping tools that may work faster than Python's packages, but I'm not sure. JavaScript does help you understand the general principles of how to extract specific things out like children, certain tags, or specific tables.

There are lots of examples of web scraping using Nodejs. Here's just one of them.

Check out sqlitebrowser.org I think that could take care of 2 and 3 for you to set up a DB solution and it's free.

For a data Viz you can check tableau public here. It's the freeware version of tableau. It's pared down so it's not as involved as the full version of tableau.

Interesting question, and one I've been thinking about myself.

To me it seems like the two fields are very related, in that part of managing a website will likely involve working with a database, monitoring and interpreting analytics on your size to optimize useability, marketing, etc.

On the flip side, you can work as a data analyst and need ways to access data from online sources using APIs and potentially publish dashboards and reports online for consumption.

I currently work as a research manager, and see my lack of knowledge of web development as a big gap in my skillset.

I'm going to mention Free Code Camp simply because I got an email from them today with some topics relevant to your question

• Here's a look at some career paths involving coding that aren't strictly a "developer" title: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/alternative-career-paths/
• I'm still new to a lot of this stuff myself, but they do seem to have some posts related to the intersection of web development and data science: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/tag/data-science/

Only ones I know of, which offer a kind of mock-interview along with practice & some 'certification', are more in the vein of programming; leetcode.com & hackerrank.com

You can download Stack Overflow’s Database here. It’s about half a terabyte - plenty big enough to check out most things in a database.

Grab the SQL Server Developer License/Download which is free, and run it on there.

If you can figure out how to do all this (plenty of docs & tutorials out there), you could install SQL Server Express on your machine, then load up the AdventureWorks database.

Express

AdventureWorks

I'm just finishing up The Ultimate MySQL Bootcamp: Go from SQL Beginner to Expert by Colt Steele on Udemy.

I really like the way he taught this & feel pretty confident in MySQL now. I realize I need to practice, practice, practice & found using HackerRank a great place for now.

Good Luck!!

Might be a controversial opinion, but the following really helped me. I work as a data scientist who does tons of analysis and these are the subjects that I've actually had to know a little bit about to avoid embarrassing myself.

• The basics of experimentation and what makes an experiment work
• Causality and controlling for things (you don't have to go crazy with causal inference, just regression)
• Basic linear regression

Note that you probably will never have to code any of this up on your own, there are packages for all of them. Just get a feel for when to use them and what can go wrong.

For experimentation, the first few chapters of Field Experiments by Gerber and Green is great.

I don't have a good source for regression and causality, but youtube never fails.

dbvis is my favorite sql ide ever.

Idk if tableau and powerbi have free versions, or excel, but hey, google sheets is free. it doesn't connect to data in the same way though last i checked..

Same! I just started looking around on datacamp. So far I like it, but like I said, just started with some free intro's and stuff.

If anyone has any experience with datacamp.com I'd love hearing about what your thoughts are about it.

Sure - here's one of the example exercise https://www.hackerrank.com/challenges/15-days-of-learning-sql/problem

You will find heaps of similar exercises once you login and start doing them. Also, no need to set up anything on your computer and code can be submitted from within the browser itself.

Tableau gives out two free keys for a year each if your register yourself with your university mail(to my best knowledge, hope that's still valid).

-> Check https://www.tableau.com/academic/students

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Maybe that's worth a shot or you could ask a friend to do it for you?

I’d go post on the tableau community boards https://www.tableau.com/community Yes change the names to match. You can do it in tableau by right clicking the headers. This won’t change the data structure. You might need to tell tableau the data type as well. Click the “abc” on the columns to choose. There’s a bunch more info on forums/YouTube. Reddit data analytics isn’t a very active community :/

It is reasonable to expect knowledge from this book (the whole book): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/3319461605/ref=ox_sc_saved_image_1?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1

Although a lot of position doesn't require statistics and will not test you on it.

How to Lie with Statistics also.

The book Data Analysis and Visualization Using Python: Analyze Data to Create Visualizations for BI Systems has some BI case studies in the appendix.

Why not look for some open data from your local, state, of the federal government and do your own case studies?

Are you looking for case study examples to get a feel for real-world business BI examples?