Question

ou are a marketing analyst tasked with compiling a report on customer demographics and purchasing behaviour for a retail company. You have collected data from various sources, including surveys, sales reports, and online databases. As you organise the data for analysis, what is the most effective file format for storing tabular data?


CSV


HTML


DOCX


TXT

Answer 1

The most effective file format for storing tabular data in this case is **CSV (Comma-Separated Values)**.

CSV files are widely used for storing tabular data because they are simple, lightweight, and can be easily imported into various data analysis tools and software, such as Excel, R, or Python. They preserve the structure of rows and columns, making it easy to manage and analyze data.

Here’s why the other options are less suitable for tabular data:

- **HTML:** While HTML can represent tables, it is primarily designed for displaying data on the web and is not a straightforward format for data analysis.

- **DOCX:** This is a word processing format and not ideal for storing structured data intended for analysis. It is better suited for rich text documents.

- **TXT:** While plain text files can store data, they lack a clear structure (like delimiters) to easily represent tabular data, making them less suitable than CSV for analysis purposes.

In summary, CSV is the best choice for your needs.