When reconciling the databases, should we make copies of the original columns and reconcile on the copies, so that we keep the original data?

[Sbebastien]

^

[linneakirby]

After our discussion today, I think it would be prudent to always make a copy of a column before reconciling it, but after some basic pre-processing. For example, if there is a column with a list of countries, it's more useful to split the column into multiple columns so each country has its own entry.

However, we should define what kind of pre-processing would be useful. In some files I've looked at, there are entries like "E Caribbean", referencing "Eastern Caribbean" -> should abbreviations like "E" be expanded? Or should they just be left as-is?