Chapter 2

Data Models
 Learning Objectives

• After completing this chapter, you will be able to:

• Discuss data modeling and why data models are important
• Describe the basic data-modeling building blocks
• Define what business rules are and how they influence database
design
• Understand how the major data models evolved
• List emerging alternative data models and the needs they fulfill
• Explain how data models can be classified by their level of
abstraction

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 Data Modeling and Data Models

• Data modeling: creating a specific data model for

a determined problem domain
• Data model: simple representation of complex real-
world data structures
- Useful for supporting a specific problem domain
• Model: abstraction of a more complex real-world
object or event

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 The Importance of Data Models

• The importance of data modeling cannot be

overstated
• Facilitates communication
• Gives various views of the database
• Organizes data for various users
• Provides an abstraction for the creation of good a
database

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 Data Model Basic Building Blocks

• Entity: person, place, thing, or event about which data

will be collected and stored
• Attribute: characteristic of an entity
• Relationship: association among entities
- One-to-many (1:M OR 1..*)
- Many-to-many (M:N or *..*)
- One-to-one (1:1 OR 1..1)
• Constraint: restriction placed on data
- Ensures data integrity

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 Business Rules

• Brief, precise, and unambiguous description of a policy,

procedure, or principle
• Create and enforce actions within that organization’s
environment
• Establish entities, relationships, and constraints

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 Discovering Business Rules (1 of
2)

• Sources of business rules

• Company managers
• Policy makers
• Department managers
• Written documentation
• Direct interviews with end users

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 Discovering Business Rules (2 of
2)
• Reasons for identifying and documenting business rules:
• Standardize company’s view of data
• Facilitate communications tool between users and
designers
• Assist designers
- Understand the nature, role, scope of data, and business
processes
- Develop appropriate relationship participation rules and
constraints
- Create an accurate data model

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 Translating Business Rules into Data
Model Components
• Business rules set the stage for the proper identification
of entities, attributes, relationships, and constraints
• Nouns translate into entities
• Verbs translate into relationships among entities
• Relationships are bidirectional
• Questions to identify the relationship type
-How many instances of B are related to one instance
of A?
-How many instances of A are related to one instance
of B?

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 Naming Conventions

• Entity name requirements

• Be descriptive of the objects in the business environment
• Use terminology that is familiar to the users
• Attribute name
• Required to be descriptive of the data represented by the
attribute
• Proper naming
• Facilitates communication between parties
• Promotes self-documentation

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 The Evolution of Data Models

• Hierarchical models: developed to manage large

amounts of data for complex manufacturing projects
• Represented by an upside-down tree which contains
segments
-Segments are the equivalent of a file system’s record
type
• Depicts a set of one-to-many (1:M) relationships

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 The Evolution of Data Models

• Network models: created to represent complex data

relationships effectively
• Improved database performance and imposed a
database standard
• Allows a record to have more than one parent
• Standard database concepts that emerged with the
network model are still used by modern data models
• Schema and subschema
• Data manipulation language (DML)
• Data definition language (DDL)

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The Evolution of Data Models

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rotected website for classroom use.
 The Relational Model (1 of 5)

• Produced an automatic transmission database that

replaced standard transmission databases
• Based on a relation (i.e., table): matrix composed of
intersecting tuples (rows) and attributes (columns)
• Describes a precise set of data manipulation constructs

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 The Relational Model (2 of 5)

• Relational database management system (RDBMS)

• Performs basic functions provided by the hierarchical
and network DBMS systems
• Makes the relational data model easier to understand
and implement
• Hides the complexities of the relational model from the
user

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The Relational Model (3 of 5)

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The Relational Model (4 of 5)

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 The Relational Model (5 of 5)

• SQL-based relational database application

• End-user interface
-Allows end user to interact with the data
• Collection of tables stored in the database
-Each table is independent from another
-Rows in different tables are related based on common
values in common attributes
• SQL engine
-Executes all queries

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 The Entity Relationship Model (1
of 2)

• Graphical representation of entities and their

relationships in a database structure
• Entity relationship diagram (ERD): uses graphic
representations to model database components
• Entity instance or entity occurrence: rows in the
relational table
• Attributes: describe particular characteristics
• Connectivity: term used to label the relationship types

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The Entity Relationship Model (2
of 2)

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 The Object-Oriented Data Model (1 of 3)

• Both data and its relationships are contained in a single

structure known as an object
• Object-oriented database management
system(OODBMS): based on OODM
• Object: contains data and their relationships with
operations that are performed on it
• Basic building block for autonomous structures
• Abstraction of real-world entity
• Attribute: describes the properties of an object

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 The Object-Oriented Data Model (2
of 3)

• Class: collection of similar objects with shared structure

and behavior organized in a class hierarchy
• Class hierarchy: resembles an upside-down tree in which
each class has only one parent
• Inheritance: object inherits methods and attributes of
classes above it
• Unified Modeling Language (UML): describes sets of
diagrams and symbols to graphically model a system

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The Object-Oriented Data Model (3
of 3)

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 Object/Relational and XML

• Extended relational data model (ERDM)

• Supports OO features, extensible data types based on
classes, and inheritance
-Object/relational database management system (O/R
DBMS): based on ERDM
• Extensible Markup Language (XML)
• Manages unstructured data for efficient and effective
exchange of structured, semistructured, and
unstructured data

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rotected website for classroom use.
 Emerging Data Models: Big Data and
NoSQL (1 of 3)

• Goals of Big Data

• Find new and better ways to manage large amounts of
web and sensor-generated data
• Provide high performance at a reasonable cost
• Characteristics of Big Data
• Volume
• Velocity
• Variety

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 Emerging Data Models: Big Data and
NoSQL (2 of 3)
• Challenges of Big Data
• Volume doesn’t allow usage of conventional structures
• Expensive
• OLAP tools proved inconsistent dealing with
unstructured data
• New technologies of Big Data
• Hadoop
• Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS)
• MapReduce
• NoSQL

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 Emerging Data Models: Big Data and
NoSQL (3 of 3)

• NoSQL databases
• Not based on the relational model
• Support distributed database architectures
• Provide high scalability, high availability, and fault
tolerance
• Support large amounts of sparse data
• Geared toward performance rather than transaction
consistency
• Provides a broad umbrella for data storage and
manipulation

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 Data Models: A Summary

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 Hierarchical Model
• Advantages
• Promotes data sharing
• Parent/child relationship promotes conceptual simplicity and data integrity
• Database security is provided and enforced by DBMS
• Efficient with 1:M relationships
• Disadvantages
• Requires knowledge of physical data storage characteristics
• Navigational system requires knowledge of hierarchical path
• Changes in structure require changes in all application programs
• Implementation limitations
• No data definition
• Lack of standards

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 Network Model
• Advantages
• Conceptual simplicity
• Handles more relationship types
• Data access is flexible
• Data owner/member relationship promotes data integrity
• Conformance to standards
• Includes data definition language (DDL) and data manipulation language
(DML)
• Disadvantages
• System complexity limits efficiency
• Navigational system yields complex implementation, application
development, and management
• Structural changes require changes in all application programs

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 Relational Model

• Advantages
• Structural independence is promoted using independent tables
• Tabular view improves conceptual simplicity
• Ad hoc query capability is based on SQL
• Isolates the end user from physical-level details
• Improves implementation and management simplicity
• Disadvantages
• Requires substantial hardware and system software overhead
• Conceptual simplicity gives untrained people the tools to use a good system
poorly
• May promote information problems

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 Entity Relationship Model

• Advantages
• Visual modeling yields conceptual simplicity
• Visual representation makes it an effective communication tool
• Is integrated with the dominant relational model
• Disadvantages
• Limited constraint representation
• Limited relationship representation
• No data manipulation language
• Loss of information content occurs when attributes are removed from entities
to avoid crowded displays

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 Object-Oriented Model

• Advantages
• Semantic content is added
• Visual representation includes semantic content
• Inheritance promotes data integrity
• Disadvantages
• Slow development of standards caused vendors to supply their own
enhancements
• Complex navigational system
• Learning curve is steep
• High system overhead slows transactions

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 NoSQL

• Advantages
• High scalability, availability, and fault tolerance are provided
• Uses low-cost commodity hardware
• Supports Big Data
• Key-value model improves storage efficiency
• Disadvantages
• Complex programming is required
• There is no relationship support
• There is no transaction integrity support
• In terms of data consistency, it provides an eventually consistent model

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Degrees of Data Abstraction

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 The External Model

• End users’ view of the data environment

• People who use the application programs to
manipulate the data and generate information
• ER diagrams are used to represent the external views
• External schema: specific representation of an external
view

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 The External Model

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 The Conceptual Model

• Represents a global view of the entire database by the

entire organization
• Conceptual schema: basis for the identification and
high-level description of the main data objects
• Logical design: task of creating a conceptual data
model
• Conceptual model advantages
• Macro-level view of data environment
• Software and hardware independent

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 The Conceptual Model

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 The Internal Model

• Representing database as seen by the DBMS mapping

conceptual model to the DBMS
• Internal schema: specific representation of an internal
model, using the database constructs supported by the
chosen database
• Logical independence: changing internal model without
affecting the conceptual model
• Hardware independent: unaffected by the type of
computer on which the software is installed

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 The Internal Model

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 The Physical Model
• Operates at lowest level of abstraction
• Describes the way data are saved on storage media
such as magnetic, solid state, or optical media
• Requires the definition of physical storage and data
access methods
• Software and hardware dependent
• Relational model aimed at logical level
• Does not require physical-level details
• Physical independence: changes in physical model do not
affect internal model

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 The Physical Model

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 Summary

• A data model is an abstraction of a complex real-world

data environment
• There are many types of data models (e.g., hierarchical,
network, relational, object-oriented, extended relational
data model, etc.)
• Data-modeling requirements are a function of different
data views (global versus local) and the level of data
abstraction

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