Structured and Unstructured Data

Before covering the main topics, it’s important to understand the difference between types of data. You may already be familiar with structured and unstructured data. If so, you can skip to the next section.

Structured and unstructured data are two primary types of data that organizations handle, and they differ significantly in terms of their formats, storage, and processing methods.

Structured data is highly organized and formatted in a manner that enables simple and direct search operations via search engine algorithms or other search mechanisms. It is usually stored in relational databases (RDBs) and managed using Structured Query Language (SQL). Examples of structured data include information stored in relational databases, spreadsheets, and CSV files. This type of data is typically numerical and can easily be mapped into predefined fields. For example, details such as names, dates, and credit card numbers in an e-commerce transaction...