[dimaggiosghost]

I agree, thank you for peovoking this thought. It is raw and if so I apologize.

This is where hinting is important. Metadata. That sequence if I know it's a phone number, or a sequence of increasing digits, depends a lot on metadata.

Given some reasonable sample size, i believe machine learning could provide hints as to some of the common types of formats. Semi automated data hinting or structuring?

There is a bidirectional connection between interpreting your data and how your data is structured

Is it possible to use your data column to statistically hint at metadata characteristics by some sort of clustering, then use that to automatically clean input data?