Semi-structured data

Semi-structured data^[1] is a form of structured data that does not obey the tabular structure of data models associated with relational databases or other forms of data tables, but nonetheless contains tags or other markers to separate semantic elements and enforce hierarchies of records and fields within the data. Therefore, it is also known as self-describing structure.

In semi-structured data, the entities belonging to the same class may have different attributes even though they are grouped together, and the attributes' order is not important.

Semi-structured data are increasingly occurring since the advent of the Internet where full-text documents and databases are not the only forms of data anymore, and different applications need a medium for exchanging information. In object-oriented databases, one often finds semi-structured data.