Chapter 1 Data Tables

Pretty much all statistical learning methods require data in a table format with multiple columns and rows. However, data comes in many different forms. In fact, data can come in many different presentations, and in a wide range of sizes, shapes, colors, textures, and flavors. It can come from one single source, or it may be the result of a variety of sources. It can have a very well defined structure, or it can simply be unstructured. In this chapter, we review some of the common types of data tables that you can typically encounter in practice while applying a statistical learning procedure.