Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Checked, But Still Unsure

One of the jobs that I am very weak at is doing checking - Checking data, especially.

Check me out, instead!

Having data spreading all over the spreadsheet, want me to check the correctness of the data record by record, that is killing me!And it's not like 1 or 2 records, nor 100 or 200 records. They are 100,000++ records!!! Want me to check line by line (record by record) is fucking-obviously impossible. So I need to use SQL statement (some database language) to instruct the computer to check for me.

However, computer is stupid. (Oops, I just said that!) Yes, it is so stupid that they most of the time are not intelligent to interpret our instruction correctly. Missed out one line of instruction and you will get some other unwanted result. Damn, you will need to verify again your own instruction, amend it and instruct the computer to do the thing you want it to do again.

Do as I said or I'll do you good!

Even though computer does help me to check and filter out those invalid data, I am still not confident that all those invalid data are filtered out. I will need to do some random checking again to ensure the best result. Again, having 100,000++ records of data, I think having error is almost inescapable. That's what I hate. You know, boss expect 100% clean data. And even though I check over and over again, I can never be sure that some invalid data here or there, or I missed checking out this part or that part. That's always a trap!

Being a perfectionist, it really stressed me out to have to check the thousands of data over and over again. It's a very tedious job, really! Each time an error was found, I feel like being stabbed right into the heart instantly. It's even worse when you think that everything is ok, delivered the "clean data" to customer, but then the output was rejected by them due to some missed checking. In that case, not only a few tight slaps at the face, the evil questioning stare from the boss would have sent a damned cold shiver to my spine, and I would be looking for any possible hole to hide in.

Let it go...

Anyway, I have tried my best. Am I sure everything has been checked with no mistake? No! To hell if there's still mistake or error. I have to admit I'm no perfect. Damn, even the computer is stupid!

4 comments:

William said...

Masyallah. This kind of task can do one ar? Who can verify the "correctness" la? SQL can only do so much. How can it look for errors for you when you don't know what they are? Kesian...

Glog said...

Hmmm look at it this way, computers are a creation of inperfect,flawful creatures ie human beings and you expect it to be smarter than us?

Jason said...

Well, at least you did your best.

Ganymede said...

There there.

*hugs