3 Things that Make a Wardrobe Spreadsheet Good
What does it take for a wardrobe tracking spreadsheet to be good for analysis? I have a few thoughts on how to keep your spreadsheet organized for easy analyzing. If you're familiar with relational databases, this will all sound very familiar! This is by no means inclusive, or ~ the rules ~, just some thoughts I have as a professional engineer about how I organize my wardrobe spreadsheet.
1. Fields/columns you care about. This is your spreadsheet, track the things you care about! An example of a thing I care about that others may not is the source of an item. I like to track where I've been shopping, but not everyone will care to store this kind of information. If you find yourself wondering about it, best to write it down and store it as a column in your spreadsheet!
2. Data atomicity. Atomic data means it is broken down into the smallest possible pieces. For a spreadsheet, what this means is that all parts fields that contain data about a specific item come together to represent an entire record. I have many columns in my spreadsheet and I break apart things like the brand, the name of an item, and the style or cut, which may all be contained in the "name". For example I own a JSK from Innocent World called "British Crown Tuck Flared JSK". The record for that piece has the full title in the "Name" field, but also a separate field for "Type" to represent that it is a JSK. The full record is much more involved, it includes the brand, the color, the date it was purchased, and where it was purchased from, among others. Storing a record this way allows me to look at more than just the names and counts of my pieces and makes my analytical capabilities much more powerful.
3. Definitive Data. This is a little vague, but in particular, this refers to storing data such that you can derive information from it via calculations. An example of this is that I store the date I bought something, instead of just how long I've had it. This allows me to
1. Fields/columns you care about. This is your spreadsheet, track the things you care about! An example of a thing I care about that others may not is the source of an item. I like to track where I've been shopping, but not everyone will care to store this kind of information. If you find yourself wondering about it, best to write it down and store it as a column in your spreadsheet!
2. Data atomicity. Atomic data means it is broken down into the smallest possible pieces. For a spreadsheet, what this means is that all parts fields that contain data about a specific item come together to represent an entire record. I have many columns in my spreadsheet and I break apart things like the brand, the name of an item, and the style or cut, which may all be contained in the "name". For example I own a JSK from Innocent World called "British Crown Tuck Flared JSK". The record for that piece has the full title in the "Name" field, but also a separate field for "Type" to represent that it is a JSK. The full record is much more involved, it includes the brand, the color, the date it was purchased, and where it was purchased from, among others. Storing a record this way allows me to look at more than just the names and counts of my pieces and makes my analytical capabilities much more powerful.
3. Definitive Data. This is a little vague, but in particular, this refers to storing data such that you can derive information from it via calculations. An example of this is that I store the date I bought something, instead of just how long I've had it. This allows me to
- count how many pieces I owned at a certain point in time
- see how long a piece has been in my wardrobe
- combined with the "sold" flag, see how long pieces last before I sell them
And loads of other things. This is similar to telling a computer your birthday instead of your age. This way your age can be continually calculated and checked.
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