3. STRUCTURED DATA
WHAT IS STRUCTURED DATA?
STRUCTURED DATA IS DATA THAT IS APPLIED TO A UNIVERSAL FORMAT MAKING
IT EASILY RECOGNIZED, UNDERSTOOD AND DISPLAYED BY SEARCH ENGINES.
• Representation: discrete (rows and column).
• Storage/persistence: DBMS or File format (ex: VSAM ' Virtual
Storage Access method ‘).
• Metadata focus: syntax (ex. location and format).
• Standards: SQL, ADO.NET, ODBC (Open Database
Connectivity), RDMS support XML as another option.

4. UNSTRUCTURED DATA
• THE FOUNDATION OF TEXTUAL ANALYTICS IS THE ABILITY TO ACCESS AND
ANALYZE UNSTRUCTURED DATA IN AN UNFETTERED MANNER
• TO ACHIEVE THIS STATE, AN INFRASTRUCTURE SUITABLE FOR ANALYTICAL
PROCESSING MUST BE CREATED.
The heart of that environment is the unstructured database.

5. UNSTRUCTURED DATA
(CONT.)
• REPRESENTATION:
* BINARY LARGE OBJECTS: LESS-DEFINED BOUNDARIES, LESS EASY ADDRESSABLE.
* SMALL DISCRETE OBJECTS: INFORMATION REPRESENTED FOR A VERY SPECIFIC
PURPOSE.
• STORAGE / PERSISTENCE: UNMANAGED.
• METADATA FOCUS: SEMANTICS (DESCRIPTIVE AND OTHER MARKUP).
• STANDARDS: OPEN XML, SMTP (SIMPLE MAIL TRANSFER
PROTOCOL), SMS, CSV, INFORMATION AND CONTENT EXCHANGE.

6. EXAMPLES OF STRUCTURED DATA
- DATABASES - DATA WAREHOUSES
- XML DATA - ENTERPRISE SYSTEMS (CRM, ERP, ETC.)

7. EXAMPLES OF UNSTRUCTURED DATA
- EXCEL SPREADSHEETS - WORD DOCUMENTS
- EMAIL MESSAGES - VIDEO FILES
- RSS FEEDS - AUDIO FILES

8. SEMI-STRUCTURED DATA
• IS A FORM OF STRUCTURED DATA THAT DOES NOT CONFORM WITH THE
FORMAL STRUCTURE OF DATA MODELS ASSOCIATED WITH RELATIONAL
DATABASES OR OTHER FORMS OF DATA TABLES.
• ENTITIES BELONGING TO THE SAME CLASS MAY HAVE
DIFFERENT ATTRIBUTES EVEN THOUGH THEY ARE GROUPED TOGETHER
“THE ATTRIBUTE ORDER " IS NOT IMPORTANT.

9. SEMI-STRUCTURED DATA
(CONT.)
• SEMI-STRUCTURED DATA IS INCREASINGLY OCCURRING SINCE THE ADVENT
OF THE INTERNET WHERE FULL-TEXT DOCUMENTS
• IN OBJECT-ORIENTED DATABASES, ONE OFTEN FINDS SEMI-STRUCTURED
DATA.

10. TYPES OF SEMI-STRUCTURED DATA
• XM
• EMAIL
• OME (OBJECT EXCHANGE MODEL)
• EDI (ELECTRONIC DATA INTERCHANGE)