Re: Semi-structured data

Quick example for the lurkers of one of 480,000+ Google hits on (('semi-structured' OR 'unstructured') AND 'data')

http://javelina.cet.middlebury.edu/lsa/out/cover_page.htm

>> A semistructured data is half organized data. :-)<<

Oh! Most of the SQL databases I get to fix!  

>> For instance a bitmap or a string of characters are perfectly
structured. <<

But the semantics of the the picture they hold is not! Recognizing a human face is a very, very complex problem which even requires that the human brain (still the most complex computer in the known universe) use higly specialized "wetware" in special lobes.

The bitmap graphic can get transformed, rotated, distorted shrunk, expanded, random swapped, etc. and a human can still see the picture in it.

>> One question: A (mathematical) set is structured or not? <<

I'd say yes, if it is finite; yes, if it is a certain kind of transfinite; and I don't really know, if it does not have a characteristic function.

I have been defining a set operation as "relational" if I have a characteristic function that an be applied to all rows in a table in parallel without regard to a prior result or the rest of the table. But I am now in danger of thread drift ... Received on Fri Jun 25 2004 - 23:39:10 CEST