DATA MODELS

MODEL Model- is an abstraction or representation of the real world that reveals all features of interest to the users of the information in the model Models are created to better understand a process/ phenomenon/activity A model is used to provide a representation of items, events and relationship sets between them and to provide all the basic concepts and rules for good communication between developers and users

Data model Is defined as a way finding tool for both business and IT professionals which uses a set of symbols and text to precisely explain a subset of real information to improve communication within the organization and thereby lead to a more flexible and stable application environment Data model is a tool for data abstraction representing the organization itself and helps users clearly and accurately communicate their understanding of the organization data

DATA MODEL continued… A data model organizes data elements and standardizes how the data elements relate to one another. Since data elements document real life people, places and things and the events between them, the data model represents reality, for example a student registers for many modules or a lecturer teaches many students

COMPONENTS OF A DATA MODEL A data model is comprised of 3 components namely: Structural part- which consist of a set of rules according to which databases can be constructed Manipulative part- it defines the types of operations that are allowed on the data Integrity part- it covers integrity rules that ensure that the stored data is accurate

DATA MODEL CATEGORIES High Level/ Object Based/ Conceptual Based They provide concepts that are close to the user or close to the way the user sees the database They describe data at the conceptual and external view levels Allows one to specify data constraints explicitly e.g. ER model, Object oriented model, semantic model

E.g. hierarchical, relational and network Implementation/ Record Based/ Representational They are used to specify the logical structure of the database The database is structured in fixed format records of several types and each record type defines a fixed number of fields/ attributes and each field is usually of a fixed length E.g. hierarchical, relational and network

Physical/ Low Level data model They provide concepts that describe the data of how data (metadata) is stored in the computer Concepts at this level are meant for computer specialists and not meant for typical end users

REVIEW QUESTIONS 1) Compare and contrast a model and a data model 2) Explain the main data model categories that exist