CMP - 270

Database Systems
for BS (IT)

Lecture 3:
Database Development and Data Modeling

Hareem Aslam
[email protected]

Punjab University College of Information Technology (PUCIT)

What is Model?

 A model is a simplified way to describe or explain a complex

reality
 Scientific models

Image sources:
http://www.redorbit.com/education/reference_library/space_1/universe/2574692/geocentric_model/
http://hendrianusthe.wordpress.com/2012/06/21/heliocentric-vs-geocentric/
What is data model?
 A set of concepts to describe the structure of a database,
the operations for manipulating these structures, and
certain constraints that the database should obey.
 Structure:
 Typically include elements (and their data types) as well as groups of elements
(e.g. entity, record, table), and relationships among such groups
 Constraints:
 Constraints specify some restrictions on valid data; these constraints must be enforced at
all times
What is data model?

 Operations:
 These operations are used for specifying database retrievals and
updates by referring to the structure of the data model.
 basic model operations (e.g. generic insert, delete, update)
 user-defined operations (e.g. compute_student_gpa,
update_inventory)
Importance of data model

Communication tool

• Facilitate interaction among the designer, the applications

programmer, and the end user

Give an overall view of the database

• End users have different views and needs for data

Importance of data model

Organize data for various users

• Data model organizes data for various users

Are an abstraction for the creation of well-designed good database

• Cannot draw required data out of the data model

Data Model Basic Building Blocks
 Entity: anything about which data are to be collected and
stored
 Attribute: a characteristic of an entity
 Relationship: describes an association among entities
 One-to-many (1:M) relationship
 Many-to-many (M:N or M:M) relationship
 One-to-one (1:1) relationship
 Constraint: a restriction placed on the data
Business Rules
 Descriptions of policies, procedures, or principles within a
specific organization
 Apply to any organization that stores and uses data to generate
information
 Description of operations to create/enforce actions within an
organization’s environment
 Must be in writing and kept up to date
 Must be easy to understand and widely disseminated
 Describe characteristics of data as viewed by the company
Discovering Business Rules
 Sources of business rules:
 Company managers
 Policy makers
 Department managers
 Written documentation
 Procedures
 Standards
 Operations manuals
 Direct interviews with end users
Discovering Business Rules (cont’d.)

 Standardize company’s view of data

 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
Translating Business Rules into Data Model
Components
 Nouns translate into entities
 Verbs translate into relationships among entities
 Relationships are bidirectional
 Two 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?
 Naming Conventions
 Naming occurs during translation of business rules to data
model components
 Names should make the object unique and distinguishable
from other objects
 Names should also be descriptive of objects in the
environment and be familiar to users
 Proper naming:
 Facilitates communication between parties
 Promotes self-documentation
Categories of Data Models
 Conceptual (high-level, semantic) data models:
 Provide concepts that are close to the way many users perceive data.
 logical nature of data representation; it emphasizes on what entity is presented; it is
used for database design as blueprint
 (Also called entity-based or object-based data models.)

 Physical (low-level, internal) data models:

 Provide concepts that describe details of how data is stored in the computer. These
are usually specified in an ad-hoc manner through DBMS design and administration
manuals
 Implementation (representational) data models:
 Provide concepts that fall between the above two, used by many commercial DBMS
implementations (e.g. relational data models used in many commercial systems).
Database Models
 Conceptual models include
 Entity-relationship database model (ERDBD)
 Object-oriented model (OODBM)

 Implementation models include

 Hierarchical database model (HDBM)
 Network database model (NDBM)
 Relational database model (RDBM)
 Object-oriented database model (ODBM)
Database Models (con’t.)
 Relationships in Conceptual Models
 One-to-one (1:1)
 One-to-many (1:M)
 Many-to-many (M:N)

 Implementation Database Models

 Hierarchical
 Network
 Relational
 Object-Oriented
THE EVOLUTION OF DATA MODELS
 Evolution of Database
Modals 1990s
2000s
1980s
1970s
1960s

Object oriented ?
Hierarchical
Relational
Client Oriented

Traditional files Object-relational

Network
History of Database Model
 Hierarchical database model (HDBM)
 Network database model (NDBM)
 Relational database model (RDBM)
 Object-oriented database model (ODBM)
Hierarchical database model (HDBM)
Hierarchical Database Model
(HDBM)
 Logically represented by an upside-down tree
 Each parent can have many children (segment linkage)

 Each child has only one parent

 A single table acts as the "root" of the database from which
other tables "branch" out.
 Relationships in such a system are children and parents.
 Parents and children are tied together by links called
"pointers
Hierarchical Database Model
 Logically represented by an upside-down tree
 1:M relationship
Hierarchical Database Model
 Hierarchical path (beginning from left)
 Left-list hierarchical path, or preorder traversal, or hierarchical
sequence

Final assembly->Component A->Assembly A->

Part A ->Part B -> Component B -> Component C –
Assembly B -> Part C ->Part D
 Re-list sequence, if the segment is frequently accessed
 Bank systems commonly use HD(Hierarchical database model)
Hierarchical Database Model
 Bank systems commonly use the HDBM
 customer account can be subject to many transactions
(1:M relationship)
 Relationship is fixed (debiting and crediting)

 Frequently access large amount of transactions

Hierarchical Database Model
 Advantages
 Conceptual simplicity: relationship between layers is logically simple;
design process is simple
 Database security: enforced uniformly through the system
 Data integrity
 Data independence
 Efficiency in 1:M relationships and when uses require large numbers of
transactions
 Dominant in 1970s , when we used mainframe system with large
databases
Hierarchical Database Model
 Disadvantages
 Complex implementation: physical data storage characteristics;
database design is complicated
 Difficult to manage and lack of standards
 Lacks structural independence
 Applications programming and use complexity (pointer based)
 Implementation limitations, i.e. especially it only handle 1:M type of
model
Network Database Model (NDBM)
Network Database Model (NDBM)
 Each record can have multiple parents
 Called by Database Task Group (DBTG) to define standards
 Three crucial database components
 Network schema: conceptual organization of the entire database
 Subschema: portion of database as information for application
programs
 Database management language: defining data characteristics and
data structure
 Schema Data definition language (DDL): define schema components
 Subschema Data definition language
 Data manipulating language: manipulate data content
Network Database Model
 Each record can have multiple parents
 Introduce set to describe relationship
 Each set has owner record and member record, parallel to parent and child
in HDM
 Member may have several owners
 One-ownership
 Hierarchical model is a subset of the network model.
 The network model uses set theory to provide a tree-like hierarchy.
Network Database Model
 Member may have several owners
Network Database Model
 Advantages
 Conceptual simplicity, just lime HDM
 Handles more relationship types (but all 1:M relationship)
 Data access flexibility
 Promotes database integrity
 Data independence
 Conformance to standards
Network Database Model
 Disadvantages
 System complexity
(Develop by the Computer programmers for the Computer
Programmers rather than user)
 Lack of structural independence
Relational Database Model (RDBM)
 Let’s user or database designer to operate human logical
environment
 Perceived by user as a collection of tables for data
storage, while let RDBMS handles the physical details.
 Tables are a series of row/column intersections
 Tables related by sharing common entity characteristics
 It allows 1:1, 1:M, M:N relationships
Relational Database Model
Relational Database Model
 Advantages
 Structural independence: data access path is irrelevant to
database design; change structure will not affect the database
 Improved conceptual simplicity
 Easier database design, implementation, management, and use

 Ad hoc query capability with SQL (4GL is added)

 Powerful database management system
Relational Database Model
 Disadvantages
 Substantial hardware and system software overhead
 Poor design and implementation is made easy
 May promote “islands of information” problems
Textbook
Carlos Coronel, Steve Morris, “Database Systems” Design, Implementation,
Management, 12th Ed. Course Technology, 2016”.

Reference book
 Jeffrey Hoffer, “Modern Database Management ” Design, Implementation, Management,
10th Edition”
 Thomas Connolly, “Database Systems: A Practical Approach to Design, Implementation
and Management (6th Ed.)”
 Elmasri, “Fundamentals of Database Systems: (7th Ed.)”