The 5 Best Data Wrangling Books on Our Reading List

Our editors have compiled this directory of the best data wrangling books based on Amazon user reviews, rating, and ability to add business value.

There are loads of free resources available online (such as Solutions Review’s Data Integration Software Buyer’s Guide, vendor comparison map, and best practices section) and those are great, but sometimes it’s best to do things the old-fashioned way. There are few resources that can match the in-depth, comprehensive detail of one of the best data wrangling books.

The editors at Solutions Review have done much of the work for you, curating this directory of the best data wrangling books on Amazon. Titles have been selected based on the total number and quality of reader user reviews and ability to add business value. Each of the books listed in this compilation meets a minimum criteria of 5 reviews and a 4-star-or-better ranking.

Below you will find a library of titles from recognized industry analysts, experienced practitioners, and subject matter experts spanning the depths of predictive analytics all the way to data science. This compilation includes publications for practitioners of all skill levels.

Principles of Data Wrangling: Practical Techniques for Data Preparation

“This practical guide provides business analysts with an overview of various data wrangling techniques and tools, and puts the practice of data wrangling into context by asking, “What are you trying to do and why?” Written by key executives at Trifacta, this book walks you through the wrangling process by exploring several factors—time, granularity, scope, and structure—that you need to consider as you begin to work with data. You’ll learn a shared language and a comprehensive understanding of data wrangling, with an emphasis on recent agile analytic processes used by many of today’s data-driven organizations.”

Python for Data Analysis: Data Wrangling with Pandas, NumPy, and IPython

“Get complete instructions for manipulating, processing, cleaning, and crunching datasets in Python. Updated for Python 3.6, the second edition of this hands-on guide is packed with practical case studies that show you how to solve a broad set of data analysis problems effectively. You’ll learn the latest versions of pandas, NumPy, IPython, and Jupyter in the process. Written by Wes McKinney, the creator of the Python pandas project, this book is a practical, modern introduction to data science tools in Python. It’s ideal for analysts new to Python and for Python programmers new to data science and scientific computing. Data files and related material are available on GitHub.”

Data Wrangling with Python: Creating actionable data from raw sources

“The book starts with the absolute basics of Python, focusing mainly on data structures. It then delves into the fundamental tools of data wrangling like NumPy and Pandas libraries. You’ll explore useful insights into why you should stay away from traditional ways of data cleaning, as done in other languages, and take advantage of the specialized pre-built routines in Python. This combination of Python tips and tricks will also demonstrate how to use the same Python backend and extract/transform data from an array of sources including the Internet, large database vaults, and Excel financial tables.”

Data Wrangling with R (Use R!)

“This guide for practicing statisticians, data scientists, and R users and programmers will teach the essentials of preprocessing: data leveraging the R programming language to easily and quickly turn noisy data into usable pieces of information. This book will guide the user through the data wrangling process via a step-by-step tutorial approach and provide a solid foundation for working with data in R. The author’s goal is to teach the user how to easily wrangle data in order to spend more time on understanding the content of the data.”

Data Wrangling with Python: Tips and Tools to Make Your Life Easier

“This hands-on guide shows non-programmers like you how to process information that’s initially too messy or difficult to access. You don’t need to know a thing about the Python programming language to get started. Through various step-by-step exercises, you’ll learn how to acquire, clean, analyze, and present data efficiently. You’ll also discover how to automate your data process, schedule file- editing and clean-up tasks, process larger datasets, and create compelling stories with data you obtain.”

NOW READ: The Best Data Wrangling Courses and Online Training

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