Which type of data does NOT fit well within traditional relational databases?

Unstructured data does not fit well within traditional relational databases due to its inherent characteristics. Traditional relational databases are designed to handle structured data, which consists of clearly defined fields and data types organized into tables with relationships between them. This structure lends itself well to SQL querying and efficient data management.

In contrast, unstructured data lacks a predefined format or organization, making it difficult to represent in a tabular form. Common examples of unstructured data include text documents, images, audio files, and videos. Since unstructured data doesn’t conform to a specific schema, it poses challenges for storage, retrieval, and analysis within the confines of a relational database.

On the other hand, structured data naturally aligns with the relational model, and semi-structured data, like XML or JSON, can be accommodated with some additional parsing and is often stored alongside structured data. Key-value pairs can also be handled by certain database systems designed for NoSQL use cases, which further illustrates the limitation of traditional relational databases regarding unstructured data.