How to normalize data

Sometimes you need to normalize data into a standardized range (also known as ‘feature scaling’). For example, you might want to normalize a list of scores so that the maximum score is 1 and all the other scores are proportionally less. Or you might want to normalize the scores so that the maximum is 1 and the minimum is 0. You can easily do these types of normalization using Easy Data Transform.

• Install Easy Data Transform on your PC or Mac, if you haven’t done so already. It will only take a minute. There is a fully functional free trial and you don’t have to give us your email or sign up to anything.
• Start Easy Data Transform. Make sure the Auto Run button is pressed in.

• Download normalize.csv.
• Drag the normalize.csv file onto Easy Data Transform.

• If you look at the bottom of the Right pane, with the input item selected, you will see the data that we want to normalize.
• With the input item selected, click the Scale transform button in the Left pane. You may need to scroll the Left pane down to see the button. If the button isn’t showing, check show advanced in the Left pane.

• A Scale transform will be added. Ensure the Scale transform is selected in the center pane.

• Now we want to normalize the Before and After values so the maximum is 1 and the other values are proportionally less. In the Right pane check the Before and After columns and set the other options as shown below:

• The scaled/normalized data will then be shown. The maximum value is shown as 1, all the others are shown as proportionately less.

• We can also normalize it so that the maximum in each column is scaled to 1, by setting Of to Each column:

• This gives:

• Or we can normalize the data so that the maximum in each column is scaled to 1 and the minimum is scaled to 0.

• This gives:

• We can now output the normalized data to a new file. With the Scale item selected click on the To File button in the Left pane (you may need to scroll down to see it).

• Choose the output file location and format. An output item will be added and the new file will be created. No need to ‘run’ anything.

• Other types of scaling are also possible. For example we could scale the score to a percentage of the total.

• If we want to keep the original data, we can use a Copy Cols transform to copy the columns before we scale them. We can also use a Num Format transform to set the precision of the scaled data values.

• Finally you can File>Save your transforms as a .transform file to re-use in the future.

For more information on Scale options see the Scale documentation.

As well as normalizing data, Easy Data Transform also allows you to combine 63 transforms in many other ways to create complex data transformations step-by-step for numerical, text and date data.

Easy Data Transform can process millions of rows, and input and output in multiple formats. If you need to normalize data in lots of files, you can do it in a single operation using the batch processing feature.