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Data Model
Integrated collection of concepts for describing data, relationships between
data and constraints on the data in an organization.
A data model can be thought of as a diagram or flowchart that illustrates the
relationships between data.
The structure of a database is a data model.
A DATABASE MODEL
A database model is a type of data model that determines the logical structure of
a database and fundamentally determines in which manner data can be stored,
organized, and manipulated. The most popular example of a database model is
the relational model, which uses a table-based format.
Data Model comprises:

a structural part;

a manipulative part;

Possibly a set of integrity rules.

To represent data in an understandable way.

Purpose

Categories of data models include:

1. Object-Based Logical Models

The object-based models use the concepts of entities or objects and

relationships among them.
Object-based logical models provide flexible structuring capabilities and
allow data constraints to be specified explicitly.
The two most widely-used representatives of these models: the EntityRelationship model, and the Object-Oriented model.
1.1.

The Entity-Relationship (E-R)

E-R data model is one of several semantic data models that is, it attempts to
represent the meaning of the data.
The E-R model employs three basic concepts:
a)

Entity sets

b)

Relationship sets

c)

Attributes.

An entity is an object in the real world that is distinguishable from all other

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objects. An entity set is a set of entities of the same type that share the same
properties (or attributes). Attributes are descriptive properties possessed by all
members of an entity set. Each entity has its own value for each attribute. A set of
attributes that suffices to distinguish all entities in an entity set is called a primary
key. A relationship is an association among several entities.
Extended E-R features include specialization, generalization, higher- and
lower-level entity sets, attribute inheritance, and aggregation
Entity Relationship Database Model
Complements the relational data model concepts
Represented in an entity relationship diagram (ERD)
Based on entities, attributes, and relationships

Entity Relationship Database Model

Advantages
Exceptional conceptual simplicity
Visual representation
Effective communication tool
Integrated with the relational database model
Disadvantages
Limited constraint representation
Limited relationship representation
No data manipulation language
Loss of information content

1.2 Object-Oriented Model

The object-oriented data model is an adaptation of the object-oriented
programming language paradigm to database systems. The model is based on
the concept of encapsulating data, and code that operates on that data, in an
object.
An object may send a message to another object, causing that object to
execute a method in response. Methods are procedures, written in a general
purpose programming language which manipulate the object's local instance
variables and may send messages to other objects. Objects that contain the
same types of values and the same methods are grouped together into classes.
A class may be viewed as a type definition for objects. Classes are organized

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into an inheritance hierarchy; each class inherits attributes and methods from
classes that are above it in the hierarchy. Taking full advantage of both the
code- and object-sharing features is an important aspect of object-oriented data
modeling
.
2. Physical.
Physical data models are used to describe data at the lowest level.
Physical data models capture aspects of database system
implementation.
3. Record-Based Data Models

3.1.

Relational Data Model

The relational model for database management is a database model based

on first-order predicate logic, first formulated and proposed in 1969 by Edgar
F. Codd. In the relational model of a database, all data is represented in terms
of tuples, grouped into relations. a relation is a subset of the cartesian product
of an ordered list of domains. A database organized in terms of the relational
model is a relational database
At the user-level, we represent a relation as a table. This table has one column
for each domain and one row for each tuple. Each column has a name, which
serves as a column header, and is called an attribute of the relation. The set of
attributes for a relation is called the relation schema
The purpose of the relational model is to provide a declarative method for
specifying data and queries.
Most relational databases use the SQL data definition and query language

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3.2 . Network Data Model

The network model is a database model conceived as a flexible way of representing
objects and their relationships. Its distinguishing feature is that the schema, viewed as
a graph in which object types are nodes and relationship types are arcs, is not
restricted to being a hierarchy or lattice.
Network model allows each record to have multiple parent and child records

3.3.Hierarchical Data Model.

A hierarchical database model is a data model in which the data is organized into
a tree-like structure. The structure allows representing information using parent/child
relationships: each parent can have many children, but each child has only one parent
(also known as a 1-to-many relationship). All attributes of a specific record are listed
under an entity type.

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