DNP 805 What is Structured Data?
DNP 805 What is Structured Data?
In the prior discussion question in this topic, you selected a defined patient population and listed elements that you think will be valuable in a database. Of those elements you identified to be valuable in a database, which are structured and unstructured? Explain.
What is Structured Data?
The term structured data refers to data that resides in a fixed field within a file or record. Structured data is typically stored in a relational database (RDBMS). It can consist of numbers and text, and sourcing can happen automatically or manually, as long as it’s within an RDBMS structure. It depends on the creation of a data model, defining what types of data to include and how to store and process it.
The programming language used for structured data is SQL (Structured Query Language). Developed by IBM in the 1970s, SQL handles relational databases. Typical examples of structured data are names, addresses, credit card numbers, geolocation, and so on.
What is Unstructured Data?
Unstructured data is more or less all the data that is not structured. Even though unstructured data may have a native, internal structure, it’s not structured in a predefined way. There is no data model; the data is stored in its native format.
Typical examples of unstructured data are rich media, text, social media activity, surveillance imagery, and so on.
The amount of unstructured data is much larger than that of structured data. Unstructured data makes up a whopping 80% or more of all enterprise data, and the percentage keeps growing. This means that companies not taking unstructured data into account are missing out on a lot of valuable business intelligence.
Structured vs Unstructured Data: 5 Key Differences
1) Defined vs Undefined Data
Structured data is clearly defined types of data in a structure, while unstructured data is usually stored in its native format. Structured data lives in rows and columns and it can be mapped into pre-defined fields. Unlike structured data, which is organized and easy to access in relational databases, unstructured data does not have a predefined data model.
2) Qualitative vs Quantitative Data
Structured data is often quantitative data, meaning it usually consists of hard numbers or things that can be counted. Methods for analysis include regression (to predict relationships between variables); classification (to estimate probability); and clustering of data (based on different attributes).
Unstructured data, on the other hand, is often categorized as qualitative data, and cannot be processed and analyzed using conventional tools and methods. In a business context, qualitative data can, for example, come from customer surveys, interviews, and social media interactions. Extracting insights from qualitative data requires advanced analytics techniques like data mining and data stacking.
3) Storage in Data Houses vs Data Lakes
Structured data is often stored in data warehouses, while unstructured data is stored in data lakes. A data warehouse is the endpoint for the data’s journey through an ETL pipeline. A data lake, on the other hand, is a sort of almost limitless repository where data is stored in its original format or after undergoing a basic “cleaning” process.
Both have the potential for cloud-use. Structured data requires less storage space, while unstructured data requires more. For example, even a tiny image takes up more space than many pages of text.
As for databases, structured data is usually stored in a relational database (RDBMS), while the best fit for unstructured data instead is so-called non-relational, or NoSQL databases.
4) Ease of Analysis
One of the most significant differences between structured and unstructured data is how well it lends itself to analysis. Structured data is easy to search, both for humans and for algorithms. Unstructured data, on the other hand, is intrinsically more difficult to search and requires processing to become understandable. It’s challenging to deconstruct since it lacks a predefined data model and hence doesn’t fit in in relational databases.
While there are a wide array of sophisticated analytics tools for structured data, most analytics tools for mining and arranging unstructured data are still in the developing phase. The lack of predefined structure makes data mining tricky, and developing best practices on how to handle data sources like rich media, blogs, social media data, and customer communication is a challenge.
5) Predefined Format vs Variety of Formats
The most common format for structured data is text and numbers. Structured data has been defined beforehand in a data model.
Unstructured data, on the other hand, comes in a variety of shapes and sizes. It can consist of everything from audio, video, and imagery to email and sensor data. There is no data model for the unstructured data; it is stored natively or in a data lake that doesn’t require any transformation.
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Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.
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The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
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If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
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Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
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Important information for writing discussion questions and participation
Welcome to class
Hello class and welcome to the class and I will be your instructor for this course. This is a -week course and requires a lot of time commitment, organization, and a high level of dedication. Please use the class syllabus to guide you through all the assignments required for the course. I have also attached the classroom policies to this announcement to know your expectations for this course. Please review this document carefully and ask me any questions if you do. You could email me at any time or send me a message via the “message” icon in halo if you need to contact me. I check my email regularly, so you should get a response within 24 hours. If you have not heard from me within 24 hours and need to contact me urgently, please send a follow up text to
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Plagiarism is highly prohibited. Please ensure you are citing your sources correctly using APA 7th edition. All assignments including discussion posts should be formatted in APA with the appropriate spacing, font, margin, and indents. Any papers not well formatted would be returned back to you, hence, I advise you review APA formatting style. I have attached a sample paper in APA format and will also post sample discussion responses in subsequent announcements.
Your initial discussion post should be a minimum of 200 words and response posts should be a minimum of 150 words. Be advised that I grade based on quality and not necessarily the number of words you post. A minimum of TWO references should be used for your initial post. For your response post, you do not need references as personal experiences would count as response posts. If you however cite anything from the literature for your response post, it is required that you cite your reference. You should include a minimum of THREE references for papers in this course. Please note that references should be no more than 5 years old except recommended as a resource for the class. Furthermore, for each discussion board question, you need ONE initial substantive response and TWO substantive responses to either your classmates or your instructor for a total of THREE responses. There are TWO discussion questions each week, hence, you need a total minimum of SIX discussion posts for each week. I usually post a discussion question each week. You could also respond to these as it would count towards your required SIX discussion posts for the week.
I understand this is a lot of information to cover in 5 weeks, however, the Bible says in Philippians 4:13 that we can do all things through Christ that strengthens us. Even in times like this, we are encouraged by God’s word that we have that ability in us to succeed with His strength. I pray that each and every one of you receives strength for this course and life generally as we navigate through this pandemic that is shaking our world today. Relax and enjoy the course!
Hi Class,
Please read through the following information on writing a Discussion question response and participation posts.
Contact me if you have any questions.
Important information on Writing a Discussion Question
- Your response needs to be a minimum of 150 words (not including your list of references)
- There needs to be at least TWO references with ONE being a peer reviewed professional journal article.
- Include in-text citations in your response
- Do not include quotes—instead summarize and paraphrase the information
- Follow APA-7th edition
- Points will be deducted if the above is not followed
Participation –replies to your classmates or instructor
- A minimum of 6 responses per week, on at least 3 days of the week.
- Each response needs at least ONE reference with citations—best if it is a peer reviewed journal article
- Each response needs to be at least 75 words in length (does not include your list of references)
- Responses need to be substantive by bringing information to the discussion or further enhance the discussion. Responses of “I agree” or “great post” does not count for the word count.
- Follow APA 7th edition
- Points will be deducted if the above is not followed
- Remember to use and follow APA-7th edition for all weekly assignments, discussion questions, and participation points.
- Here are some helpful links
- Student paper example
- Citing Sources
- The Writing Center is a great resource