Extracting

Extracting: Subtracting from one area (collecting) to add to another area (warehousing) with identifier to make it more

Explaining Extracting:

Extracting is the act or practice of taking different records with identifiers and attributes with express intention of joining them together with other records to create a bigger and more comprehensive database in a storage area. Generally the process of Extracting is followed by loading it into a database or Datawarehouse. Technically this process is referred to as Extract, Transform, and Load (ETL). Depending on data size, type and where the data transformation occurs, there is an alternative process know as Extract, Load and Transform (ELT) (Source: IBM,  ELT vs. ETL: What’s the Difference? | IBM). In the case of ELT, the transformation happens after the data is extracted and loaded.

Extracting process:

When recording take place, usually the events, activities, and observations are captured in a row and column. For instance, the day and time the event took place is entered in a row. At the same time, the category or type of event related to the date and time (row), is entered in a column. It may be necessary to add the location or where the event happened. Then we add another column to identify the location (London) where the event (wedding) happened on date and time (April 1, 2020 at 2:00 PM). 

Example: Records and System of Extracting Education Data 

(Source: Taken from a power point presentation shared as an example of a Longitudinal Education Data System, at an international workshop organized by the OECD Centre for Education Research and Innovation, Barnard College, Columbia University. 2014, Slide 1 (oecd.org)

The Ontario data collection system is a good example as the system collects more than 110 million data records with multiple data points each year.  The Ontario School Information System (OnSIS) in Canada collects data on Students, Schools, educators, and school boards, which manage the school system, three times in a year. For instance, student records include biographical, school enrolment, achievement, type of specialized program enrolled in, incidents of discipline,  and language programs.  All the different records are extracted and using a unique identifier for each student known as Ontario Education Number (OEN), and filtered and transformed and loaded in to the Education data warehouse.