Re: [xml-dev] How to discover data's "natural" structure?

["G. Ken Holman" <gkholman@CraneSoftwrights.com>]

Have you considered using XML Topic Maps?  Surely the relationships 
you describe form a web rather than a tree.

I hope this helps.

. . . . . . Ken

At 2015-03-01 16:34 +0000, Costello, Roger L. wrote:
> Hi Folks,
>
> XML is well-suited for structuring data into a hierarchy, e.g.,
>
>         Book
>               Chapter
>                     Section
>               Chapter
>                     Section
>               Chapter
>                     Section
>
> JSON is well-suited for structuring data into a set of name-value pairs, e.g.,
>
>         Temperature: 21 degrees
>         Humidity: 52%
>         Precipitation: 10%
>
> or into a list of values, e.g.,
>
>         John, Mary, George, Bill, Susan
>
> or into a combination of the two.
>
> Comma-separated value (CSV) is well-suited for structuring data into 
> a series of columns, e.g.,
>
>         ID,     Name,           Age
>         1,      John,           21
>         2,      Mary,           25
>         3,      George,         30
>
> Recently I have been working on a project to migrate CSV-structured 
> data to XML. But at the back of my mind is a gnawing question: is a 
> hierarchical structuring the data's natural structuring?
>
> Of course any data can be forced into a hierarchical structure; but 
> that doesn't mean it's right.
>
> Does data have an inherent, natural structuring?
>
> Has it been your experience that when data is structured in its 
> natural way, everything feels right: it's easy to understand the 
> data, it's easy to process the data, everything about it is easy?
>
> Perhaps there is no natural structuring of data - the structuring of 
> data is entirely dependent on the processing to be performed on the 
> data. So the processing dictates the structure of the data, not the 
> data itself. Yes? No?
>
> Or, perhaps at some level data seeks to be structured in a certain 
> way, independent of its processing. Yes? No?
>
> Let me give an example (a sketch of an example, actually). In the 
> data that I am currently working with, I have found that the natural 
> structure of the data is as Lego building blocks. Some building 
> blocks must not assemble with certain other building block, else 
> rules of the domain are violated. So there is a kind of repulsion 
> between those building blocks. The data naturally groups into 
> building blocks where some building blocks have an affinity for 
> other building blocks and some building blocks have a repulsion for 
> other building blocks. I am not sure how to design data building 
> blocks that have affinity and repulsion properties. It doesn't seem 
> to fall into any of the structuring categories listed above.
>
> Thoughts?
>
> /Roger

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