This chapter has provided an overall context for the purpose, subject matter, and programming languages in this book. In summary, data wrangling is important because data in its original raw format is rarely prepared for its end use to begin with. Data wrangling involves getting and reading data, cleaning data, merging and shaping data, and storing data. In this book, data wrangling will be conducted using the R and Python programming languages.

In the next chapter, I will dive into Python, with an introduction to Python programming. I will introduce basic principals of programming and features of the Python language that will be used throughout the rest of the book. If you are already familiar with Python, you may want to skip ahead or skim through the following chapter.

In Chapter 3, Reading, Exploring, and Modifying Data - Part I, and Chapter 4, Reading, Exploring, and Modifying Data - Part II, I will take a generalized programming approach to data wrangling. Chapter 3, Reading, Exploring, and Modifying Data - Part I, and Chapter 4, Reading, Exploring, and Modifying Data - Part II, will discuss how to use Python programming to read, write, and manipulate data using Python.