Data Models
Hierarchical Model
This database model organises data into a tree-like-structure, with a single root, to which all the
other data is linked. The heirarchy starts from the Root data, and expands like a tree, adding child
nodes to the parent nodes.
In this model, a child node will only have a single parent node.
This model efficiently describes many real-world relationships like index of a book, recipes etc.
In hierarchical model, data is organised into tree-like structure with one one-to-many relationship
between two different types of data, for example, one department can have many courses, many
professors and of-course many students.
Network Model
This is an extension of the Hierarchical model. In this model data is
organised more like a graph, and are allowed to have more than one parent
node.
In this database model data is more related as more relationships are
established in this database model. Also, as the data is more related, hence
accessing the data is also easier and fast. This database model was used to
map many-to-many data relationships.
This was the most widely used database model, before Relational Model
was introduced.
Entity-relationship Model
In this database model, relationships are created by dividing object of
interest into entity and its characteristics into attributes.
Different entities are related using relationships.
E-R Models are defined to represent the relationships into pictorial form to
make it easier
Let's take an example, If we have to design a School Database, then Student will be
an entity with attributes name, age, address etc. As Address is generally complex, it can be
another entity with attributes street name, pincode, city etc, and there will be a relationship
between them.
Relational Model
In this model, data is organised in two-dimensional tables and the
relationship is maintained by storing a common field.
This model was introduced by E.F Codd in 1970, and since then it has
been the most widely used database model, infact, we can say the only
database model used around the world.
The basic structure of data in the relational model is tables. All the
information related to a particular type is stored in rows of that table.
Hence, tables are also known as relations in relational model.