What is Data Scrubbing?
Data scrubbing, sometimes called data cleansing, is the process of detecting and removing or correcting any information in a database that has some sort of error. This error can be because the data is wrong, incomplete, formatted incorrectly, or is a duplicate copy of another entry. Many data-intensive fields of business such as banking, insurance, retail, transportation, and telecommunications may use these sophisticated software applications to clean up a database’s information. Errors are in databases can be the result of human error in entering the data, the merging of two databases, a lack of company wide or industry wide data coding standards, or due to old systems that contain inaccurate or outdated data. Before computers had the capabilities to sort through and clean data, most data scrubbing was done by hand. Not only was this time consuming and expensive, but it oftentimes led to even more human error. The need for data scrubbing is made clear when considering how easily erro
