Data Management Technology(2) -- Data Model

1.Data Model

Model

• Is the abstraction of real world
• Reveal the essence of objects, help people to locate and resolve problems

Data Model

• A data model explicitly determines the structure of data, and defines the operation that can be imposed, in order to represent the characteristic of the world
• Data model is the core and fundamental of database
  • Data model determines the function and performance of database
• There exists different data models
  • From different level, or different point of view
  • The evolution of data model promotes the database progress
• Conceptual model
  • documents and organizes the data for communication between functional and technical people
• Logical model
  • describes data semantics, data relationships, data constraints and data operation in database
• Physical model
  • describes how data is organized in storage device

Different level of abstraction

2.Conceptual Model - ER Model

• Is the most popular conceptual model
• Gives us a language to specify
  • what information the db must hold
  • what are the relationships among components of that information
• View the world as a collection of entities