Types of Data: Structured vs Unstructured
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As we all are aware that data are everywhere and every organization is gathering massive amounts of data on daily basis. However, what most individuals fail to understand is that not every data is equal there exist various forms of data and it is very important to know these forms in case you want to process data or make decisions out of it. Today I am going to discuss two broad kinds of data namely structured and unstructured data. And yet, even though they are useful they can differ greatly in their manner of storage, processing and analysis. Now then explain to me what these types are and why is it important to know the difference between the two.
Well before I mention the structured data, it is the kind of data that is arranged in fixed format. Structured data is similar to information that can be perfectly organized in rows and columns like spreadsheet or database table. And the greatest work of organized information is customer data in the company database where you can have columns with name and email and phone number and address and average purchase list. Well, every piece of information has its particular location and has the same course of every insertion. And this makes structured data very easy to search, sort and analyse since computers are well aware where each bit of information is. Most business information such as sales records, listings of inventory, accounting transactions, etc would be so I would be saying, because they must be organized in an orderly manner to be subject to accounting and reporting.
And now that I can explain unstructured data it is the exact opposite of structured data. Since unstructured data does not follow any established format or structure it may be any type of unstructured data such as text data, emails, social media posts, images, videos, and audio files. The thing with unstructured data is that it is full of valuable information but getting the information is much harder than unstructured data. As an illustration when you have thousands of customer reviews on your website that is unstructured data since the reviews are not written in one way and the structure is not fixed. And to process these reviews and get to know what customers are talking about you require special tools and techniques such as natural language processing and text mining. Well I do not know much about all the technical tools but I know that unstructured data needs more technological advancement than structured data to work with.
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Well let me compare both the types the greatest difference is the way they are stored and processed. Since the structured data is often stored in relational databases such as SQL databases whereby all the data has been tabulated and there are distinct relationships between various data. And query structured information is simple you can use basic SQL commands to acquire precisely what you require in a handful of seconds. Unstructured data is also stored in other systems such as in file systems, document databases or data lakes where there is no pre-determined structure. And unstructured data needs machine learning algorithms and artificial intelligence to be able to make sense out of them. But more important than that structured data occupies less storage space since it is efficiently organized and unstructured data may occupy colossal storage space particularly when such data contains videos and high resolution images.
People will now begin to think and say that which type of data is more important. Well the answer of that is that they both are equally important but different purposes. Since structured data is ideal when you need to perform operational matters such as monitoring sales, stockpile, and fiscal reporting as you require precise data and clear organization. Unstructured information is however useful in terms of sentiment by customers, trends in the market and getting the insights that cannot be obtained by numbers alone. As an illustration, feedback in the form of text reviews left by customers can inform you why some people like or dislike your product which organized information such as sales figures will not explain. So smart organizations combine the two types of data in order to have the full picture of their business.
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Well this is another crucial point that should be mentioned that most of the data that is being produced in the current time is in fact unstructured. With research indicating that approximately 80 to 90 percent of all data is unstructured which makes sense when you consider the amount of content being created on social media, video sites and messaging applications in a given second, it is likely to come as no surprise. But unstructured majority data has been undererxploited over a long period of time due to the lack of tools to handle it by the companies. But now with the development of AI and machine learning technologies companies can finally be able to derive value out of unstructured data and this is providing new opportunities and competitive advantages to the businesses who understand how to use it appropriately.
We all understand that the knowledge of the difference between structured and unstructured data is one of the key requirements of every person dealing with data or making the decisions based on it. Keep updated on the types of data since the ability to handle structured and unstructured data will be an important skill in any industry in the future.!