Types of Digital Data

 

DIGITAL DATA

Digital data is information stored on a computer system as a series of 0’s and 1’s in a binary language. Digital data jumps from one value to the next in a step by step sequence.

Example: Whenever we send an email, read a social media post, or take pictures with our digital camera, we are working with digital data.

Digital data can be classified into three forms:

a. Unstructured Data: The data which does not conform to a data model or is not in a form that can be used easily by a computer program is categorized as unstructured data. About 80—90% data of an organization is in this format.

Example: Memos, chat rooms, PowerPoint presentations, images, videos, letters, researches, white papers, the body of an email, etc.

b. Semi-Structured Data: The data which does not conform to a data model but has some structure is categorized as semi-structured data. However, it is not in a form that can be used easily by a computer program.

Example : Emails, XML, markup languages like HTML, etc. Metadata for this data is available but is not sufficient.

c. Structured Data: The data which is in an organized form (ie. in rows and columns) and can be easily used by a computer program is categorized as semi-structured data. Relationships exist between entities of data, such as classes and their objects.

 

Example: Data stored in databases.