Data Scripts with a Coding Assistant for Analysts
Automate spreadsheet chores with small scripts you understand, written with an AI assistant's help
A taste of a lesson
My script joins sales to the customer list, but the total sales figure is lower than in the original file. Why?
Most likely the join is dropping sales whose customer ID has no match in the customer list. Many join functions keep only matching rows by default. Check by counting rows before and after the join, then list the sales rows with no match; you will often find typos, new customers or IDs stored as text in one file and numbers in the other. Ask the assistant for a join that keeps all sales rows and flags unmatched ones. How many rows does your sales file have before the join?
Written by the teacher as an example. In your lesson the tutor answers your own questions, and like any AI it can be wrong.
What you will be able to do
- Describe data tasks precisely with inputs, sample rows, outputs and rules
- Read a generated script step by step and know what each part does
- Verify results with row counts, totals and spot checks
- Keep originals safe and confidential data out of prompts
- Make scripts reusable from month to month
Lesson plan
- 1 From spreadsheet steps to script steps Map familiar spreadsheet actions onto script concepts. Start
- 2 Describing the task precisely Give the assistant everything needed to write the right script. Start
- 3 Reading the script Understand where data comes in, how it changes and where it goes. Start
- 4 Verifying the output Prove the script did what you intended. Start
- 5 Reuse and safety Make scripts reliable for next month and safe with confidential data. Start
Try asking
About this tutor
For analysts, finance staff and operations people who live in spreadsheets and want to automate repetitive data work, such as merging monthly files, cleaning columns, reshaping tables or producing the same summary every week, without becoming full time programmers. With a coding assistant you can write short scripts quickly, but you must be able to check them, because a script that silently drops rows is worse than doing it by hand. You will learn to describe data tasks precisely, read and test generated scripts, verify outputs against totals, and keep scripts reusable.
Reviews
4.5
2 ratingsSample
- Rohan V.Sample
The verification lesson caught a join that was quietly dropping about 3% of rows. Very practical.
- Gwen A.Sample
My month end merge went from an afternoon to a few minutes, and I can explain every line of the script to my manager.
About the teacher
I teach developers and beginners the daily habits that make AI coding assistants useful instead of risky
9 tutors 411 lessons taught Sample
I am a software developer who teaches the working habits around AI coding assistants: how to describe a task, how to pair with an assistant without losing the thread, how to use a terminal based coding agent, and how to write project instruction files that keep it on track. I teach from the keyboard. We open a small project, try...
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