# Types and patterns

> Understand the native, inferred and semantic types and the value patterns shared by Tabalyst Scan and Report.

Source: https://docs.tabalyst.com/reference/types-and-patterns/ (Tabalyst 0.7.1)

**Tabalyst Scan** reads source values, infers a technical type for each field
and runs detectors for possible meanings. **Tabalyst Report** presents the
same results as an inferred type, an optional semantic type and a table of
detected formats. These are separate answers to three questions:

| Question | Result | Example |
| --- | --- | --- |
| How was the value stored? | Native source type | `"12.5"` is a CSV string; a JSON `12.5` is a native number. |
| What kind of values does the field contain? | Inferred technical type | Strings such as `"12.5"` can give a field inferred type `number`. |
| What recognizable meaning or form do the values have? | Semantic type and detector evidence | A `text` field of email addresses can have semantic type `email`. |

Read [Types](https://docs.tabalyst.com/reference/types-and-patterns/types.md) for every native, inferred and semantic type and the
selection rules. Read [Recognized patterns](https://docs.tabalyst.com/reference/types-and-patterns/patterns.md) for every built-in
detector, configured patterns, format labels and coverage states. The
[report guide](https://docs.tabalyst.com/report/read-report.md) explains the HTML tables; the
[Scan format](https://docs.tabalyst.com/scan/format.md) and
[Report JSON profile](https://docs.tabalyst.com/report/json-profile.md) give the machine-readable
fields.