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Data Models

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14 views

Data Models

Uploaded by

veena shinde
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Data Models

Data Model is the modeling of the data description, data semantics, and consistency
constraints of the data. It provides the conceptual tools for describing the design of a
database at each level of data abstraction. Therefore, there are following four data
models used for understanding the structure of the database:

1) Relational Data Model: This type of model designs the data in the form of rows and
columns within a table. Thus, a relational model uses tables for representing data and in-
between relationships. Tables are also called relations. This model was initially
described by Edgar F. Codd, in 1969. The relational data model is the widely used
model which is primarily used by commercial data processing applications.

2) Entity-Relationship Data Model: An ER model is the logical representation of data


as objects and relationships among them. These objects are known as entities, and
relationship is an association among these entities. This model was designed by Peter
Chen and published in 1976 papers. It was widely used in database designing. A set of
attributes describe the entities. For example, student_name, student_id describes the
'student' entity. A set of the same type of entities is known as an 'Entity set', and the set
of the same type of relationships is known as 'relationship set'.

3) Object-based Data Model: An extension of the ER model with notions of functions,


encapsulation, and object identity, as well. This model supports a rich type system that
includes structured and collection types. Thus, in 1980s, various database systems
following the object-oriented approach were developed. Here, the objects are nothing
but the data carrying its properties.

4) Semistructured Data Model: This type of data model is different from the other three
data models (explained above). The semistructured data model allows the data
specifications at places where the individual data items of the same type may have
different attributes sets. The Extensible Markup Language, also known as XML, is widely
used for representing the semistructured data. Although XML was initially designed for
including the markup information to the text document, it gains importance because of its
application in the exchange of data.

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