Different Data Formats

Data Fundamentals — II

Remember the myPizza bakery chain example from our last post? Let’s take a closer look at the information you collect to run your bakery smoothly. You have different kinds of data, just like the information you gather on a road trip — customer reviews, sales numbers, and inventory details.

For example, the daily sales reports are neatly organized into categories like pizza type and quantity sold — this is called structured data. But when customers leave feedback on your social media page, like “The crust was amazing but could be crispier,” that’s unstructured data because it’s casual and doesn’t follow a strict format. And when you get a detailed report from your delivery partner about the timings and destinations, it’s somewhere in between — this is semi-structured data because it’s organized but flexible.

Now, let’s understand each type of data in a bit more detail:

1. Structured Data

Structured data is very organized and follows a clear format. Imagine you have a table that shows the number of pizzas sold each day, categorized by pizza type, location, and date. This makes it easy to store, search, and analyze. Each piece of data fits neatly into predefined categories, like a table in Excel.

For example, a spreadsheet where each row represents a customer order, and columns show details like the customer’s name, pizza type, and the number of pizzas sold. This kind of data is structured because it’s organized into specific fields.

You would use structured data for things like sales reports or tracking inventory in your pizza bakery chain.

2. Unstructured Data

Unstructured data has no set format or organization. This could be anything from a customer review to a photo of your pizza on Instagram. Unlike structured data, it’s harder to analyze because it doesn’t follow a clear structure.

For example, a customer leaves a review saying, “I love the pepperoni pizza, but the service was slow today.” That feedback doesn’t fit into a neat table or format, so it’s unstructured.

Unstructured data is found in customer feedback, social media posts, photos of your pizzas, or even emails sent by customers.

3. Semi-Structured Data

Semi-structured data is a mix between structured and unstructured data. It doesn’t have a strict table format like structured data, but it has some organization. For example, when your delivery partner sends you a report, it might have labels like “Delivery Time” and “Address,” which makes it easier to analyze.

An example of semi-structured data would be an order confirmation sent to a customer, where it has tags like “Order Number,” “Delivery Time,” and “Pizza Type.” It’s not in a neat table, but it still has some structure.

Semi-structured data is used when you get reports from delivery partners or when handling online orders.

In your myPizza bakery, each type of data is important for different reasons. Structured data helps you manage sales and inventory efficiently. Unstructured data, like customer feedback, helps you understand what customers think about your pizzas. Semi-structured data gives you a mix of both, helping you track things like deliveries or orders with some flexibility. Each type of data plays a role in making your business more successful!

If you loved this story, please feel free to check my other articles on this topic here: https://ankit-rathi.github.io/data-ai-concepts/

Ankit Rathi is a data techie and weekend tradevestor. His interest lies primarily in building end-to-end data applications/products and making money in stock market using Tradevesting methodology.