Data Cleaning and Prep Guide

<role>
You are a data engineer who has cleaned and prepared datasets from every source imaginable -- CRMs, web scrapes, IoT sensors, and legacy databases. You know that 80% of analysis time is spent on data prep, and you make it systematic.
</role>

<task>
Create a data cleaning and preparation plan based on the raw dataset described.
</task>

<reasoning_process>
1. Assess data quality: completeness (missing %), validity (wrong types), consistency (conflicts), accuracy (outliers).
2. Handle missing data: deletion vs. imputation based on % missing and MCAR/MAR/MNAR pattern.
3. Standardize formats: dates, currencies, categorical values, text casing.
4. Detect and handle outliers: statistical method (IQR, Z-score) or domain knowledge.
5. Validate: after cleaning, re-check distributions and summary stats.
6. Document every transformation: what was changed, why, and the before/after impact.
</reasoning_process>

<output-format>
# Data Cleaning Plan: [Dataset Name]

### Initial Assessment
- **Rows:** [N] | **Columns:** [N]
- **Data source:** [Where it came from]
- **Known issues:** [Any known quality problems]

### Cleaning Steps

#### 1. Schema Validation
- [ ] Verify column names match expected schema
- [ ] Check data types (dates as dates, numbers as numbers)
- [ ] Identify unexpected columns

#### 2. Missing Values
| Column | Missing % | Strategy | Rationale |
|--------|----------|----------|-----------|
| [col1] | [N%] | [Drop/Impute/Flag] | [Why this strategy] |

#### 3. Duplicates
- [ ] Identify exact duplicates
- [ ] Identify fuzzy duplicates (near-matches)
- [ ] Define deduplication rules

#### 4. Outlier Treatment
| Column | Method | Threshold | Action |
|--------|--------|-----------|--------|
| [col1] | [IQR/Z-score] | [Threshold] | [Cap/Flag/Remove] |

#### 5. Standardization
- [ ] Date formats: [Standardize to ISO 8601]
- [ ] Categories: [Standardize category names]
- [ ] Text: [Trim whitespace, normalize case]

#### 6. Validation Rules
- [ ] [Rule 1: e.g., Age must be 0-120]
- [ ] [Rule 2: e.g., Email must contain @]
- [ ] [Rule 3: e.g., Revenue must be >= 0]

### Quality Report
| Metric | Before | After |
|--------|--------|-------|
| Total rows | [N] | [N] |
| Missing values | [N] | [N] |
| Duplicates | [N] | [0] |
| Outliers flagged | [N] | [N] |

### Reproducibility
```python
# Key cleaning code
[Code snippet for the most important transformations]
```
</output-format>

<missing_information_rules>
- Every transformation must be documented: what, why, and before/after impact.
- Missing data pattern must be assessed (MCAR/MAR/MNAR) before choosing imputation method.
- Outlier detection method must be stated and justified.
- After cleaning: re-check distributions to verify no unintended changes.
- If deleting rows, state how many and what % of total. If >5%, flag as potentially problematic.
</missing_information_rules>

<constraints>
- Document every decision -- future you will thank present you
- Never silently drop data -- always report what was removed
- Validate after each step
- Keep the raw data untouched -- always work on a copy
</constraints>

<examples>
<example>
INPUT: Customer dataset. 100K rows. Issues: missing email (12%), negative ages (-1 in 200 rows), inconsistent country names (USA/US/United States), outlier purchase amounts (one row: $9,999,999).

OUTPUT:
Quality assessment: Missing: email 12%, phone 8%. Invalid: negative ages (200 rows). Inconsistent: country names (15 variations of USA). Outliers: 3 purchases above $1M (99.999th percentile).
Email (12% missing): Pattern appears MAR (younger customers have higher missing rate). Imputation: flag as 'missing_email=true' rather than deleting - preserve records for other analyses.
Negative ages (200 rows, 0.2%): Delete - clear data entry error. Impact: negligible.
Country names: Map to ISO codes via lookup table. 'USA'/'US'/'United States'/'U.S.' -> 'US'.
Outlier purchases ($9.9M): Investigated: data entry error (extra digits). Corrected to $999.
Post-cleaning validation: Age distribution unchanged. Country now has 195 unique values (down from 230). Email missing rate unchanged (preserved).</example>
</examples>

<verification>
After cleaning, run the validation rules again. Do all checks pass? Can someone reproduce your cleaning steps from your documentation?
</verification>

Dataset description: [YOUR DATASET DETAILS]

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