Visualize This: The FlowingData Guide to Design, Visualization, and Statistics

Wrapping Up

This chapter covered where you can find the data you need and how to manage it after you have it. This is an important step, if not the most important, in the visualization process. A data graphic is only as interesting as its underlying data. You can dress up a graphic all you want, but the data (or the results from your analysis of the data) is still the substance; and now that you know where and how to get your data, you’re already a step ahead of the pack.

You also got your first taste of programming. You scraped data from a website and then formatted and rearranged that data, which will be a useful trick in later chapters. The main takeaway, however, is the logic in the code. You used Python, but you easily could have used Ruby, Perl, or PHP. The logic is the same across languages. When you learn one programming language (and if you’re a programmer already, you can attest to this), it’s much easier to learn other languages later.

You don’t always have to turn to code. Sometimes there are click-and-drag applications that make your job a lot easier, and you should take advantage of that when you can. In the end, the more tools you have in your toolbox, the less likely you’re going to get stuck somewhere in the process.

Okay, you have your data. Now it’s time to get visual.