What is unstructured data and how is it different from structured data in the enterprise?
- Posted:
- 00:00 27 Mar 2007
- Topics:
- Databases
@34147
By comparison, unstructured data has no identifiable structure. Unstructured data typically includes bitmap images/objects, text and other data types that are not part of a database. Most enterprise data today can actually be considered unstructured. An email is considered unstructured data. Even though the email messages themselves are organized in a database, such as Microsoft Exchange or Lotus Notes, the body of the message is really freeform text without any structure at all -- the data is considered raw. Documents are another example of unstructured data. Although a Word document has some formatting attached to it, the content of the document is completely free form.
The nature of some data types, such as spreadsheets, is still a matter of debate. The spreadsheet itself has some structure, but the data you put into each cell of a spreadsheet, like Excel, is not regulated by the application.
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