Applying Analytics

8

Unstructured Data Sets

8.1 Introduction

I’m sure there are many readers that, to this point, have found this book frus-

trating because their data lack the structure of the data sets I’ve described,

making the techniques I have discussed difficult or impossible to apply. For-

tunately, like structured data, unstructured data is also amenable to analysis.

In fact, the analysis of unstructured data is a subject all analysts should be

at least somewhat familiar with because it is applicable in many surprising

situations. However, in an unstructured da ta set, the elements’ lack of organi-

zation can make applying e ven the simplest of techniques into a