The Art of SQL Server FILESTREAM - Red Gate Software

Chapter 1: Storing and Managing Unstructured Data• data that can be shared electronically with customers and suppliers, because thestructure and meaning of data has been standardized and usually determined bya data model.All of these definitions point to the defining characteristic of structured data: the abilityto identify and extract specific pieces of information that is included in the data. This isusually done by adding some sort of schema or data model which explains the structureof the data and makes it meaningful. It means we can query the data based on predetermineddata types and well-defined and understood relationships.Of course, there are degrees of structure; data that one application would deemunstructured, might be deemed structured enough by another. To demonstratewhat I mean, consider the data presented in Listing 1-1, which is a log generated byan invoicing application.Row Details--- -----------------------------------------------------------01 Mike created invoice 101 dated 2010/01/13 with a noteto notify James before shipping on fax number 456-098-090902 John created invoice 102 dated 2010/01/14 with a note tocall Anna on 898-090-0909 after shipment is sentListing 1-1:Unstructured log data.If asked whether this data is structured or unstructured, most would say "unstructured,"and with good justification; many pieces of vital information, stored in each row as a longtext string. It is comprehensible to a human, but will be hard for software to extract thosepieces of information from the text string.So essentially, yes, this data is unstructured but even so, if this data is used just as a logof activities and the application does not need to query those vital pieces of informationembedded in the text string, and extract them separately, then for that business this datais structured enough. Of course, a second application might need direct access to the25