DATABASE SYSTEM CONCEPTS &
ARCHITECTURE
DATA MODELS
• It is a collection of concepts or notations that are used to
describe the structure of the database (for describing data,
data relationships, data semantics and data constraints)
• Data semantics would involve defining the meaning and
relationships of data elements
• Data constraints are rules imposed on data ensuring that data
is accurate, consistent, and meaningful.
• It also includes the basic operations for specifying retrievals
and manipulating data in the database.
Categories of Data Models
It is basically classified into 3 types:-
1. Conceptual data model (High level)
2. Representational data model (implementation)
3. Physical data model (Low level)
Conceptual data model
• Conceptual data model is like a basic blueprint that
shows how you're going to organize and connect
information in your database without getting into the
specific details. It is just like a blueprint shows how
your house will be built.
• One such popular model is the Entity/relationship
model (ER model).
• E/R model uses entities, relationships, and attributes
that are used describe the structure of database
Physical data model
• The physical Data Model is used to describe how
data is physically stored on secondary storage device
and organized.
• It's like planning exactly where each piece of
information will be stored in our database so that we
can efficiently find and retrieve it later.
• It's like turning your paper blueprint into a real and
functional.
Representational data model
• It is used to represent the logical part of the
database.
• One such popular model is the Relational model. In
relational model, the database is organized in the
form of tables/relations. We use 2D tables to store
information inside the database.
• Technical term which is used for table in a relational
database is relation and records are referred to as
tuples.
• Relational DB is a collection of relations or 2D tables.
Representational data model
Other data models that are used to represent DB are
1. Hierarchical model - In a Hierarchical database,
model data is organized in a tree-like structure. Data
is represented using a parent-child relationship. In
Hierarchical DBMS parent may have many children,
but children have only one parent.
2. Network Model - The network database model
allows each child to have multiple parents . In this
model, entities are organized in a graph which can be
accessed through several paths.
