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Time series

A time series is a sequence of observations indexed or ordered by time.

How 9 Manning books explain it

The Well-Grounded Data Analyst

A time series is a sequence of observations indexed by time, typically representing measurements collected across successive time points.

How it is used
Uses repeated measurements to investigate temporal patterns and support decisions such as infrastructure improvement or forecasting.
How deep it goes
Works through definition, data-quality checks, granularity, reshaping, visualization, decomposition, and forecast evaluation while deferring deeper forecasting algorithms.
Examples
Uses satisfaction scores, GDP, machine output, customer creation rates, and road traffic counts across measurement locations.
What you can do after
Evaluate/understand whether temporal data supports pattern analysis or forecasting after checking its structure, coverage, granularity, and gaps.

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Pandas Workout: 200 exercises to make you a stronger data analyst

A time series is a pandas data structure whose index contains timestamp values ordered or organized by time.

How it is used
Supports date-aware selection, interval slicing, resampling, and aggregation in pandas data analysis.
How deep it goes
Explains construction, partial-date indexing, inclusive slicing, and resampling, without descending into datetime implementation internals.
Examples
Uses historical oil prices, Apollo mission dates, and New York taxi tipping percentages as practical datasets.
What you can do after
Apply pandas date indexing and resampling to calculate period-specific statistics and compare observations across time.

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Effective Data Analysis

A time series is a sequence of observations ordered or indexed by time points or intervals.

How it is used
Uses observations across time to visualize metrics, investigate historical behavior, and inform targets and stakeholder decisions.
How deep it goes
Explains time-based comparison, segmentation, aggregation, seasonality, and visualization risks, but stops short of forecasting methods.
Examples
Uses customer login activity by month, region, year, and active-day percentage, plus sales benchmarks and graduation-rate charts.
What you can do after
Evaluate trends by choosing interpretable charts, comparing segments, examining seasonality, and judging whether targets fit historical behavior.

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Starting Data Analytics with Generative AI and Python

A time series is a sequence of observations indexed or ordered by time.

How it is used
Uses time-ordered observations to inspect business activity, data quality, operational phases, and potentially meaningful changes.
How deep it goes
Explains visualization, aggregation, cyclicity detection, and correlation risks, but stops short of forecasting or formal time-series modeling.
Examples
Demonstrates monthly review counts, daily and monthly review-score proportions, and review creation-to-answer time differences.
What you can do after
Diagnose/debug with it by visualizing temporal patterns, comparing aggregated periods, investigating delays, and validating suspicious observations.

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Outlier Detection in Python

A time series is a sequence of observations indexed by or ordered according to time.

How it is used
Supports outlier detection by preserving temporal order and revealing unusual fluctuations, trends, periodicity, and sequences.
How deep it goes
Defines time series, distinguishes related data structures, and demonstrates resampling, but stops short of advanced time-series modeling.
Examples
Uses UPS Twitter mentions, industrial temperature readings, and daily sales and purchase totals as concrete time-series examples.
What you can do after
Apply time-series representations to compare temporal behavior and construct simple anomaly checks.

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MongoDB 8.0 in Action, Third Edition

Time-series data is a sequence of observations whose values are associated with timestamps and analyzed through changes over time.

How it is used
Stores timestamped measurements efficiently for sensors, stock prices, logs, and application performance metrics.
How deep it goes
Explains timestamps, metadata, measurements, bucketed BSON storage, and flat-model guidance without detailing advanced query design.
Examples
Uses sensor readings, stock prices, server logs, application metrics, and a MongoDB collection-creation command.
What you can do after
Operate/configure MongoDB time-series collections by assigning timestamp and metadata fields during creation.

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ScyllaDB in Action

Time-series data is data associated with specific points or intervals in time, often subject to time-based expiration.

How it is used
Guides ScyllaDB compaction selection for data that expires according to time.
How deep it goes
Explains time association, expiration, time windows, and table configuration, without detailing broader time-series modeling.
Examples
Uses expiring data windows and TWCS compaction diagrams as concrete illustrations.
What you can do after
Operate ScyllaDB tables by selecting TWCS and configuring compaction through table properties or ALTER TABLE.

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Causal Inference for Data Science

Time series data are observations indexed in temporal order, often collected at multiple time points.

How it is used
Deploys temporally ordered observations to describe change and estimate effects of time-related events.
How deep it goes
Defines the structure, contrasts related data types, and shows temporal graph unfolding, but defers a full theory for non-unfoldable directed cycles.
Examples
Uses film views, Google Trends, movie-release effects, price-demand dynamics, and simulated affected and comparison series.
What you can do after
Apply synthetic controls, regression discontinuity designs, or temporal graph unfolding to analyze event effects and counterfactual outcomes.

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Elasticsearch in Action, Second Edition

Time-series data consists of observations associated with timestamps or time intervals, usually ordered chronologically.

How it is used
Handles timestamped, continuously accumulating records through rollover-aware indexing and unified search access.
How deep it goes
Defines time dependence and outlines rollover, aliases, and data streams, but does not detail implementation commands.
Examples
Uses Apache web-server logs, daily files, midnight rollover, rolling indexes, aliases, and automatically generated hidden indexes.
What you can do after
Operate time-series storage by planning periodic index rollover and searching rolling indexes through an alias or data stream.

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Related concepts

These guides are generated from the text of Manning books by Manning's knowledge graph and link to the sections they draw on. The full books are available on liveBook and at manning.com.