Data Structure Checker

Overview

A comprehensive skill for automatically detecting and fixing common data file issues. Input any messy file and receive a clean DataFrame ready for analysis - zero intervention required.

Auto-fixes:

• Multi-level/hierarchical headers (flattens with separator)
• Encoding issues (utf-8, cp949, euc-kr, etc.)
• Empty rows and columns
• Data type inference and conversion
• Duplicate column names
• Unicode path issues (Korean/CJK filenames)

When to Use

This skill should be triggered when:

• Reading any Excel files (.xlsx, .xls)
• Reading any CSV/TSV files
• Reading ODS files (OpenDocument)
• Reading Parquet files
• Encountering "Unnamed:" columns in data
• Dealing with multi-level or hierarchical headers
• Processing Korean/Asian language data files

Usage

Reading Data Files

To read any tabular data file with automatic issue detection and fixing, execute the scripts/checker.py script:

import sys
sys.path.insert(0, 'skills/data-structure-checker/scripts')
from checker import smart_read

# Read file - handles all issues automatically
df = smart_read('data.xlsx')

# Read with report of fixes applied
df, report = smart_read('data.xlsx', return_report=True)

Diagnosing Files

To analyze a file's structure without reading full data:

from checker import diagnose

result = diagnose('data.xlsx')
# Returns: {'issues': ['multi_level_headers'], 'recommendations': [...]}

Command Line

# Read and display summary
uv run python skills/data-structure-checker/scripts/checker.py data.xlsx

# Diagnose without reading
uv run python skills/data-structure-checker/scripts/checker.py data.xlsx --diagnose

API Reference

smart_read(file_path, separator='_', return_report=False, sheet_name=0)

Main entry point for reading files with automatic issue resolution.

Parameters:

• file_path: Path to the file (handles Korean/Unicode filenames)
• separator: Character(s) for joining multi-level headers (default: '_')
• return_report: If True, return (DataFrame, report) tuple
• sheet_name: Sheet name or index for Excel files

Returns:

• DataFrame - Clean data ready for analysis
• Or (DataFrame, report) if return_report=True

diagnose(file_path, sheet_name=0)

Analyze file structure without reading full data.

Returns: Dictionary with detected issues and recommendations.

Report Structure

When return_report=True, the report contains:

{
    'file_path': 'data/file.xlsx',
    'timestamp': '2024-12-17T10:30:00',
    'issues_detected': ['multi_level_headers', 'empty_rows_or_columns'],
    'fixes_applied': [
        'Flattened 3-level headers with "_" separator',
        'Removed 2 empty rows and 0 empty columns'
    ],
    'original_shape': (52, 111),
    'final_shape': (49, 111),
    'header_rows': [0, 1, 2],
    'type_conversions': {'score': 'object -> float64'}
}

Issues Handled

Multi-Level Headers

Detects and flattens hierarchical headers:

Before: 응시자 정보 | Unnamed: 1 | Unnamed: 2

After: 응시자 정보_응시코드 | 응시자 정보_성명 | 응시자 정보_부서

Encoding Issues

Auto-detects encoding for CSV files:

• UTF-8 (with/without BOM)
• CP949 (Korean Windows)
• EUC-KR (Korean legacy)
• GBK/GB2312 (Chinese)
• Shift_JIS/EUC-JP (Japanese)

Empty Rows/Columns

Removes rows and columns where all values are NaN.

Data Type Inference

Converts string columns to appropriate types:

• Numeric strings → float64/int64
• Date strings → datetime64

Duplicate Columns

Renames duplicates with suffixes: ['score', 'score', 'score'] → ['score', 'score_1', 'score_2']

Unicode Path Issues

Handles Korean/CJK filenames with different Unicode normalizations (NFC/NFD).

Supported Formats

Dependencies

Ensure these packages are installed:

uv pip install openpyxl xlrd odfpy pyarrow

Integration with Deep Insight

To integrate with the coder agent, replace standard pandas read:

# Instead of:
import pandas as pd
df = pd.read_excel('data.xlsx')

# Use:
sys.path.insert(0, 'skills/data-structure-checker/scripts')
from checker import smart_read
df = smart_read('data.xlsx')

Troubleshooting

File not found with Korean filename

The skill handles Unicode normalization automatically. Verify the file path is correct.

Unexpected column names

Check the report's header_rows field. To specify header rows explicitly:

sys.path.insert(0, 'skills/data-structure-checker/scripts')
from reader import read_multi_level
df = read_multi_level('data.xlsx', header_rows=[0, 1])

Preserve original types

To skip type inference, create DataStructureChecker with infer_types=False.