Standardizing date formats before analysis primarily improves which aspect of data quality?

• A. Data timeliness
• B. Data completeness
• C. Data integrity
• D. Data accuracy

Answer: (C)

Standardizing date formats ensures consistent representation of dates across the data. When dates come in multiple formats, systems can misinterpret them, leading to incorrect joins, sorting problems, and unreliable analyses. Converting all dates to a single, canonical format preserves the actual date values and maintains internal consistency, which strengthens data integrity. This change doesn’t by itself guarantee accuracy of the dates’ values, nor does it directly affect whether data is complete or timely.