> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://llm-aws.course.gspivey.com/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://llm-aws.course.gspivey.com/foundations/introduction-to-apis/data-formats.md).
# Data Formats
In order to make use of data on the internet we first need to parse our source. Our data source can be made up of structured and unstructured data.
\
**Structured Data**
1. **HTML (Hypertext Markup Language)**:
* **Purpose**: HTML is primarily used for creating web pages. It defines the structure and layout of content on a webpage.
* **Description**: HTML uses tags to mark up elements like headings, paragraphs, images, links, and forms. It’s readable by both humans and browsers.
* **Example**:**HTML**
```
My Web Page
Welcome to My Page
This is some text.
```
* **Parsing**: Browsers automatically parse HTML to render web pages.
2. **XML (Extensible Markup Language)**:
* **Purpose**: XML is used for structuring and organizing data. It’s extensible because you can define your own tags.
* **Description**: XML uses tags to create hierarchically organized documents. It’s readable by humans and easy to manipulate programmatically.
* **Example**:**XML**
```
John Ferreira
26
Porto
Full Stack Web Developer
Fitness
```
* **Parsing**: You can use libraries (e.g., **`xml.etree.ElementTree`** in Python) to parse XML data.
3. **JSON (JavaScript Object Notation)**:
* **Purpose**: JSON is widely used for data interchange between systems. It’s lightweight and easy to read.
* **Description**: JSON represents data as key-value pairs. It’s commonly used in APIs, configuration files, and databases.
* **Example**:**JSON**
```
{
"friends": [
{
"name": "John Ferreira",
"age": 26,
"city": "Porto",
"profession": "Full Stack Web Developer",
"hobby": "Fitness"
},
{ "name": "..." }
]
}
```
* **Parsing**: Most programming languages have built-in support for parsing JSON (e.g., **`json`** module in Python).
4. **CSV (Comma-separated Values)**:
* **Purpose**: CSV is used for representing tabular data (rows and columns). It’s commonly used in spreadsheets and databases.
* **Description**: CSV is plain text with records separated by commas. The first line often serves as the header.
* **Example**:
```
name,age,city,profession,hobby
John Ferreira,26,Porto,Full Stack Web Developer,Fitness
Leonardo Marinho,18,London,Electric Engineer,Build lego
Caroline Azevedo,34,Salvador,Entrepreneur,Sing
```
* **Parsing**: You can read CSV files line by line and split values using commas.
**Unstructured Data**
**Unstructured data** refers to information that **doesn’t follow a specific format or structure**, making it challenging to process and analyze using conventional tools. [Unlike structured data, which neatly fits into tables (like those found in Microsoft Excel), unstructured data can’t be quickly analyzed and searched without further processing](https://www.coursera.org/articles/what-is-unstructured-data).