Data model

 Relatively simple representation, usually graphical, of complex real-world data structures

 Communications tool to facilitate interaction among the designer, the applications programmer, and the
end user
 Good database design uses an appropriate data model as its foundation.

Importance of Data Modeling

 End-users have different views and needs for data.

 Data model organizes data for various users.

 Well defined data model reduces risk (problem on disk space, ad hoc queries, business rules) to be
encountered by the organization.

Data Model Basic Building Blocks

 Entity is anything (noun) about which data are to be collected and stored
 Attribute is a characteristic of an entity.
 Relationship describes an association among (two or more) entities
 One-to-many (1:M) relationship
 Many-to-many (M:N or M:M) relationship
 One-to-one (1:1) relationship

 Constraint is a restriction place on the data to help ensure data integrity.

 Normally in a form of rules.
 Examples :
o Each class should have one teacher.
o A student’s average should be from 85 – 90.

Business Rules

 Brief, precise, and unambiguous description of a policy, procedure, or principle within a specific
organization’s environment
 A company airplane must be inspect after 100 hours of flight time.
 A customer may generate many invoices.
 Each invoice is generated by only one customer.
 Apply to any organization that stores and uses data to generate information.
 Description of operations that help to create and enforce actions within that organization’s environment.

How to gather business rules then?

 By direct interviews with end users
 By reading written documentation of the organization.

Importance of Business Rules

 Promote creation of an accurate data model

 Standardize company’s view of data
 Constitute a communications tool between users and designers
 Allow designer to understand the nature, role, and scope of data
 Allow designer to understand business processes
 Allow designer to develop appropriate relationship participation rules and constraints
Guided Sample

Yenshenn company wants to track each part used in each specific piece of equipment; each part is bought
from a specific supplier. Create a relational data model for the database of Yenshenn company.
(Hint: A piece of equipment is composed of many parts, but each part is used in one specific piece of
equipment. A supplier can supply many parts, but each part has been supplied by only one supplier.)

 A hospital stores data about patients, their admission and discharge from departments and their
treatments with their doctors. Patient can have many treatments with the attending doctor in many
departments during hospitalization. Patient can be attended by many doctors. Create a relational data
model as a design for the database of the hospital. Define some business rules applied in the hospital.

Different Data Models

 Hierarchical
 Network
 Relational
 Entity relationship
 Object oriented

The Hierarchical Model—Characteristics

 Basic concepts form the basis for subsequent database development
 Limitations lead to a different way of looking at database design
 Basic concepts show up in current data models
 Best understood by examining manufacturing process

Hierarchical Structure—Characteristics

 Each parent can have many children

 Each child has only one parent
  Tree is defined by path that traces parent segments to child segments, beginning from the left
 Hierarchical path
 Ordered sequencing of segments tracing hierarchical structure
 Preorder traversal or hierarchic sequence
 “Left-list” path
 If Part D is most frequently accessed and updated, change the database structure to place Part D
closer to the left side of the tree
 This will give a shorter traversal

Advantages over a file system

 Conceptual simplicity – easy to understand the model layout
 Database security
 Data independence (a change in a data type will be automatically cascaded throughout the database
by the DBMS, thereby eliminating the need to make changes in the program segments that reference
the changes data type)
 Database integrity – always a link between parent and child
 Efficiency – very efficient when it contains a large volume of data in 1:M relationships and whose
relationships are fixed over time

Disadvantages over a file system

 Complex implementation – detailed knowledge of the physical data storage characteristics is required
by the designers and programmers
 Difficult to manage – relocation of segments requires application changes
 Lacks structural independence
 Complex applications programming and use – programmers and end users must know precisely how
the data are physically distributed within the database
 Implementation limitations – difficult to support M:N relationships
 Lack of standards – no standard DDL and no DML

Child with Multiple Parents

The Network Model

 Created to
 Represent complex data relationships more effectively
 Improve database performance
 Impose a database standard
 Conference on Data Systems Languages (CODASYL)
 American National Standards Institute (ANSI)
 Database Task Group (DBTG)

Crucial Database Components

 Schema
o Conceptual organization of entire database as viewed by the database administrator
 Subschema
o Defines database portion “seen” by the application programs that actually produce the desired
information from data contained within the database
 Data Management Language (DML)
o Define data characteristics and data structure in order to manipulate the data

Data Management Language Components

 Schema Data Definition Language (DDL)

 o Enables database administrator to define schema components
 Subschema DDL
o Allows application programs to define database components that will be used
 DML
o Manipulates database contents

Network Model—Basic Structure

 Resembles hierarchical model

 Collection of records in 1:M relationships
o A relationship is called a Set
o Composed of at least two record types
 Owner
• Equivalent to the hierarchical model’s parent
 Member
• Equivalent to the hierarchical model’s child
• A record can appear as a member in more than one set i.e., a member may have
multiple owners

The Network Data Model

Advantages
 Conceptual simplicity
 Handles more relationship types
 Data access flexibility – no need for a preorder traversal
 Promotes database integrity – must first define the owner and then the member record
 Data independence
 Conformance to standards
Disadvantages
 System complexity
 Lack of structural independence

The Relational Model

 Developed by E. F. Codd (IBM) in 1970

 Conceptually simple
 Computers lacked power to implement the relational model
 Today, microcomputers can run sophisticated relational database software

The Relational Model: Basic Structure

 Relational Database Management System (RDBMS)

 Most important advantage of the RDBMS is its ability to let the user/designer operate in a human logical
environment

 Table (relations)
o Matrix consisting of a series of row/column intersections
o Related to each other by sharing a common entity characteristic
 Relational schema
o Visual representation of relational database’s entities, attributes within those entities, and
relationships between those entities
  Stores a collection of related entities
o Resembles a file
 Relational table is purely logical structure
o How data are physically stored in the database is of no concern to the user or the designer
o This property became the source of a real database revolution

The Relational Model

Advantages
 Structural independence – changes in the relational data structure do not affect the DBMS’s
data access in any way
 Improved conceptual simplicity by concentrating on the logical view
 Easier database design, implementation, management, and use
 Ad hoc query capability - SQL
 Powerful database management system
Disadvantages
 Substantial hardware and system software overhead
 Can facilitate poor design and implementation
 May promote “islands of information” problems

The Entity Relationship Model — Basic Structure


 Entity relationship diagram (ERD)
o Uses graphic representations to model database components
o Entity is mapped to a relational table
 Entity instance (or occurrence) is row in table
 Entity set is collection of like entities
 Connectivity labels types of relationships
o Diamond connected to related entities through a relationship line
The Entity Relationship Model—CrowFoot Components

The Entity Relationship Model

Advantages
 Exceptional conceptual simplicity
 Visual representation
 Effective communication tool
 Integrated with the relational data model

Disadvantages
 Limited constraint representation
 Limited relationship representation
 No data manipulation language
 Loss of information content
The Object Oriented Model

 Semantic data model (SDM) developed by Hammer and McLeod in 1981

 Modeled both data and their relationships in a single structure known as an object
 Basis of object oriented data model (OODM)
 OODM becomes the basis for the object oriented database management system (OODBMS)
 Object is described by its factual content
o Like relational model’s entity
 Includes information about relationships between facts within object and relationships with other objects
o Unlike relational model’s entity
 Subsequent OODM development allowed an object to also contain operations
 Object becomes basic building block for autonomous structures

Developments that Boosted OODM’s Popularity

 Growing costs put a premium on code reusability

 Complex data types and system requirements became difficult to manage with a traditional RDBMS
 Became possible to support increasingly sophisticated transaction & information requirements
 Ever-increasing computing power made it possible to support the large computing overhead required

Object Oriented Data Model—Basic Structure

 Object: abstraction of a real-world entity

 Attributes describe the properties of an object
 Objects that share similar characteristics are grouped in classes
 Classes are organized in a class hierarchy
  Inheritance is the ability of an object within the class hierarchy to inherit the attributes and methods of
classes above it

The Object Oriented Model

Advantages
 Adds semantic content
 Visual presentation includes semantic content
 Database integrity
 Both structural and data independence
Disadvantages
 Slow pace of OODM standards development
 Complex navigational data access
 Steep learning curve
 High system overhead slows transactions
 Lack of market penetration

Other Models

 Extended Relational Data Model (ERDM)

 Semantic data model developed in response to increasing complexity of applications
 DBMS based on the ERDM often described as an object/relational database management system
(O/RDBMS)
 Primarily geared to business applications

 Date’s objections to ERDM label

 Given proper support for domains, relational data models are quite capable of handling complex data
o Therefore, capability that is supposedly being extended is already there
 O/RDM label is not accurate because the relational data model’s domain is not an object model
structure

Data Models: A Summary

 Each new data model capitalized on the shortcomings of previous models

 Common characteristics:
o Conceptual simplicity without compromising the semantic completeness of the database
o Represent the real world as closely as possible
o Representation of real-world transformations (behavior) must be in compliance with consistency
and integrity characteristics of any data model