Spreadsheet cleanup tip: Before deleting duplicate rows, check whether the key column should be unique and flag blank IDs first. Keep an untouched copy of the source so you can trace each cleanup step. I offer cleanup for small spreadsheets (up to 100 rows and 10 columns), with an audit trail and unclear entries flagged. Details: https://contra.com/s/sNoArgMb-clean-up-to-100-spreadsheet-rows-with-an-audit-trail — $15.
This is what a real data cleaning job looks like before it becomes an elegant bar chart — duplicate rows, missing values, inconsistent formatting, all sorted out with Python and Pandas.
#collage attempt: a look inside the data analyst's actual desk, not just the pretty output.
BEFORE: Client had messy Excel inventory with 500 rows, duplicates (A12 / a12), blanks, wrong prices like "$ 2.5" and "N/A", and different warehouse names (KER / ker / Kericho).
AFTER: I did:
Removed 12 duplicate SKUs
Standardized item names to Title Case
Fixed QTY and Prices to 2 decimals
Unified Warehouse to Kericho
Made sheet ready for pivot dashboard
Result: Clean, ready-to-use inventory in 2 days using Excel.
Tools: Excel, Remove Duplicates, Text to Columns, TRIM, PROPER
Cleaned and formatted a raw dataset in Excel by removing duplicates, fixing formatting issues, handling missing values, and organizing the data into a structured format for analysis.