A dataset is a collection of data that shares the same data model.

Datasets can be anything from a collection of sports stats to a list of names, addresses, and other customer information collected during online purchases. Most people talk about datasets in terms of scientific data, for instance, a dataset containing the population numbers of an endangered species compared to that species’ available resources. It is useful to think of datasets in these terms, since it brings to mind the idea that data in a dataset is not necessarily without error, and that you can manipulate that data in useful ways to reveal certain trends or come to surprising conclusions. (In this sense, “manipulate” does not mean to deceive, but to re-contextualize, clean, and validate.)

In Flatfile, you define what your dataset contains using a sheet or workbook. When datasets are uploaded and matched to a sheet, they are cleaned and validated, which then lets you use that data to reveal certain trends, analyze market data, or reveal surprising truths that you couldn’t see in the raw data.