What Is Structured Unstructured And Semi Structured Data

To consider what semi-structured data is, let'due south showtime with an analogy -- interviewing.

Permit's say you're conducting a semi-structured interview. This, as the name implies, falls somewhere in-between a structured and unstructured interview.

For context, a structured interview is one in which the questions beingness asked, as well as the gild in which they are asked, is pre-determined by your Hour team and consequent for each candidate. An unstructured interview, on the other hand, is one in which the questions, and the order in which they are asked, is up to the discretion of the interviewer -- and could be entirely different for each candidate.

When you consider these two extremes, you lot can begin to see the benefits of semi-structured interviews, which are adequately consequent and quantitative (similar a structured interview), but nonetheless provide the interviewer with a window for edifice rapport, and asking follow-up questions.

Semi-structured data is similar in nature to a semi-structured interview -- it'due south not every bit messy and uncontrolled as unstructured data, but not as rigid and readily quantifiable as structured information.

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What Is Semi Structured Data

Semi-structured data is information that does not reside in a relational database or any other information tabular array, but nonetheless has some organizational properties to make it easier to clarify, such as semantic tags. A good case of semi-structured data is HTML code, which doesn't restrict the amount of information you desire to collect in a document, but still enforces hierarchy via semantic elements.

Here, nosotros're going to explore the difference between structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data to ensure you lot have a skillful agreement of the terms.

Structured, Semi-Structured, and Unstructured Data

Structured data is known as quantitative data, and is objective facts and numbers that analytics software tin collect -- this type of information is like shooting fish in a barrel to export, store, and organize in a database such as Excel or SQL. Structured data is valuable considering you can proceeds insights into overarching trends by running the information through data analysis methods, such equally regression assay and pivot tables.

Here'south an instance of structured data in an excel canvas:

Alternatively, semi-structured data does not adapt to relational databases such every bit Excel or SQL, but nonetheless contains some level of organization through semantic elements like tags. For instance, consider HTML, which does not restrict the amount of information y'all tin can collect in a document, but enforces a certain hierarchy:

This is a skilful example of semi-structured data. Equally you can come across, HTML is organized through code, but it's not hands extractable into a database, and y'all can't utilise traditional data analytics methods to gain insights.

Finally, unstructured data -- otherwise known as qualitative data. When it comes to marketing, unstructured data is any opinion or annotate y'all might collect about your brand. While what your consumers are saying is undeniably important, you can't hands extract meaningful analytical data from those messages.

An example of unstructured information includes electronic mail responses, similar this i: