数据整理脚本语义的可视化

Visualizing the Semantics of Data Wrangling Scripts

理解数据整理脚本的语义是数据工作者的常见需求.然而,数据整理操作的类型及其代码的实现方式复杂多样,使得数据工作者在理解脚本语义时费时费力.通过收集数据工作者在理解数据整理脚本语义上的具体需求,设计并实现了一个基于概览和细节模式的交互式可视分析系统ChangeVis,帮助数据工作者理解表格在数据整理过程中的变化.ChangeVis包含概览视图,语义视图,统计视图和数据视图4个视图,分别可视化代码块中的表结构变化、行列信息变化、单元格数据变化以及执行的数据转换操作的语义.通过案例分析和用户实验,验证了ChangeVis系统在帮助数据工作者理解数据整理脚本语义的可用性和有效性.

Understanding the semantics of data wrangling scripts is a common requirement for data workers.However,due to the complexity and diversity of the types of data transformations and their parameters,understanding the semantics of wrangling scripts is time-consuming and laborious.We worked with four data workers and developed an interactive visualization system,called ChangeVis,to help data workers understand the changes of tables in the process of data wrangling.Based on the Focus+Context technique,ChangeVis scales well and illustrates the changes of table structure,the semantics of data transformations,the changes of column information,and the changes of cell data on a selected code snippet.We used two use cases and a semi-structured user study to demonstrate the usability and effectiveness of ChangeVis.