Data Crimes

1.       Entering ‘NA’ as a missing value.

2.       Entering ‘LOQ’ in any numeric field.

3.       Entering blanks as missing values.

4.       Entering ‘Missing’ as a missing value in an otherwise perfectly happy numeric field.

5.       In general, entering characters in numeric fields.

6.       Entering zero as a missing value.

7.       Using the first row in Excel for anything other than variable names.

8.       Using silly characters in field names especially units ($,%,etc) and then expecting proper data handling packages to improvise.

9.       Merging cells in Excel and expecting proper data handling packages to just guess.

10.   Having separate columns for each group rather than including the variable “Group” and using PivotTable.

 

In summary, confusing data presentation with data management.