ABSTRACT
I’m sure there are many readers that, to this point, have found this book frustrating because their data lack the structure of the data sets I’ve described, making the techniques I have discussed difficult or impossible to apply. Fortunately, 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 data set, the elements’ lack of organization can make applying even the simplest of techniques into a real struggle that requires some creative thinking. For these reasons, the discussion in this chapter is an introduction to analyzing unstructured data.
