What is the goal of data profiling in database management?

The goal of data profiling in database management is to understand data structure, content, and quality. Through data profiling, organizations analyze existing datasets to assess their characteristics, including data types, distributions, and potential anomalies. This understanding allows organizations to determine the accuracy and completeness of their data, facilitating better decision-making and informing data governance strategies.

By focusing on the structure and content, data profiling helps to identify issues such as duplicate entries, missing values, and format inconsistencies that could impact data quality. This process is essential for maintaining robust data management practices and ensuring that the data used in analysis and reporting is reliable and effective.

While improving data integrity is a component of data profiling, it is not the sole focus. Instead, the primary aim is to gain a comprehensive view of the data landscape to inform further actions and improvements.