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Data Models
Based in part on Chapter 2 in Database Systems
(Rob and Coronel)
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CSC 240 (Blum)
Degrees of Separation
 In the early 1970’s, the Data Base Task
Group (DBTG) identified two levels
important to distinguish in database
design.
The schema is the logical design of the
entire database.
The sub-schema is the logical design
of part of the database seen by a
particular user or application (a view).
Codd, Rule 6
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Schema vs. Instance
 A database schema (its design) should be
distinguished from a database instance, which
also includes the actual data at any given time.
 Analogy: Schema is to instance as class
(template) is to object (instantiation)
 Similarly, the Data Definition Language (DDL) is
used to create/modify the schema, while the Data
Manipulation Language (DML) is mainly used to
modify or retrieve aspects of the instance.
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ANSI-SPARC Architecture
 In the mid-1970’s, American National
Standards Institute (ANSI) put together the
Standards Planning and Requirements
Committee (SPARC).
 ANSI-SPARC identified three levels important
to distinguish in database design.
External
Conceptual
Internal
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ANSI web site
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ANSI-SPARC
External
level
Conceptual
level
Internal
level
View 1
View 2
View 3
Conceptual
Schema
Internal
Schema
Physical data
organization
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ANSI-SPARC levels
 External
 Views: only what a user needs to see, arranged
in a convenient form
 Conceptual
 Overall logical view of database (entities,
attributes, relationships, constraints, etc.) plus
some utilities (security, integrity, etc.)
 Internal
 Specific information about where and how the
data is stored. Interfaces with operating
system.
 (Physical)
 The actual stored data.
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DBTG  ANSI-SPARC
 DBTG’s subschema corresponds to ANSISPARC’s external level (the views)
Subschema  External schema
 DBTG’s schema is divided into two levels
in the ANSI-SPARC plan
Conceptual schema
Internal schema
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Independence
 Recall that E.F. Codd’s Rules 8 and 9 called
for physical data independence and
logical data independence.
Physical: storage changes don’t effect
entities, fields, relationships, etc.
Logical: an extra field need not change
the views.
 ANSI-SPARC levels help provide this
independence.
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ANSI-SPARC (Fig. 2.3 in book)
External
level
View 1
View 2
View 3
Logical data independence
Conceptual
level
Internal
level
Conceptual
Schema
Physical data independence
Internal
Schema
Physical data
organization
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Same idea/Different words
 We distinguished between prescriptive and
descriptive approaches. Other terms include:
 Prescriptive  Procedural  (3GL)
Step-by-step procedure for proceeding
through database record by record
 Descriptive  Non-Procedural  Declarative 
(4GL)
Indicate what you want and let the DBMS
handle it
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4GL Tools
 Some of the standard Fourth-generation tools
include:
 Query generation
Structured Query Language (SQL)
Query By Example (QBE)
 Form generation
 Report generation
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Some fourth generation tools:
Queries made “easy”
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Some fourth generation tools:
Designer View of Northwind database
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Data Models
 A model is “a simplified representation of
a system or phenomenon.” (Webster’s)
 A data model is a representation of the
information associated with an
organization.
 When we talk about data models, we
usually mean an overall approach to
representing data (defining it,
manipulating it, etc.) rather than some
specific representation of some specific
organization.
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Models and levels
 The data models to some extent reflect
the level (e.g. prescriptive vs. descriptive)
that one operates on.
The older data models (the
hierarchical and network models) are
based more in a procedural approach.
Whereas the newer relational model is
somewhat more declarative.
Even further from implementation
details are the Entity-Relationship
and Object-Oriented models.
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Database History: Hierarchical
Model
One of the earliest database models is
the Hierarchical Model.
E.g. GUAM and IMS
It is so-called because its logical
structure is hierarchical or tree-like.
All relationships in the Hierarchical
Model are of the parent-child type.
(This is asexual reproduction, a child has
one and only one parent.)
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Example of Hierarchical Logic:
Windows Explorer
There are files in folders and folders in other folders.
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Hierarchical (Tree-like) Structure
My Computer
A drive?
C drive
D drive
E drive
Courses
C240
C220
P201
C240wks
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Web
C220wks
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Replace the folder names with
points to obtain a graph
This kind of graph is called a tree. It has no loops.
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Problem: what if a file could belong
to more than one folder?
 A file for CSC 240 may appear on the web page.
Does in belong in the C240 folder or the
Web\c240wks folder?
 To realize both relationships (belonging to CSC
240 and being on the web page) in the
Hierarchical Model, one must have two copies of
the file.
 This would be data redundancy. And if one edits one
of the files, we could end up with an “update
anomaly.”
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Drilling down
 Another feature of the hierarchical
approach is that it requires “drilling down”
(tracing through the entire hierarchy) to
get at the data
 In the Windows Explorer example, the
path requires all of the folders
C:Blum\Courses\C240\TheFile.txt
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A note on file systems
 The file system (how all of the information
is stored on one’s computer) is becoming
increasingly database-like.
 The current Windows file system typically
used, NTFS, is more like a database than
its predecessor FAT32.
 In addition Windows operating systems
allows the user to opt to have files
indexed (for better searching) and also
allows the user to add meta tags to file.
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Network Model
 The Network Model arose in the early
1970s.
The standards for the Network Model
were introduced at the Conference on
Data Systems Languages (CODASYL)
Example of a Network Model DB: IDS
 Its logical structure is a network (a
collection of crisscrossing lines).
 Unlike the Hierarchical Model, the Network
Model’s relationships are not all of the
parent-child type.
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Example of Network Logic: A
Web Site
On my web site, I have multiple links to the same set of
instructions for making graphs in Excel.
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Network Structure
La Salle Site
My Site
My CSC 152
Other Faculty Sites
My PHY 105
XY Scatter Plot
(Depending on the connections (links), the network approach
can lessen the amount of “drilling down” needed.
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Replace the web pages with
points to obtain a graph
This kind of graph is called a network. It has loops. The crisscrossing
lines also resemble a web.
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Relational Model: History
 Introduced by E. F. Codd (early 1970’s).
 Was an important step toward the goal of
data independence, acting on the higher
level, and all that good stuff.
 Codd dealt with the issue of redundancy
(repeated data) by introducing the
concept of normalization.
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Relational Model: History
(Cont.)
 Research versions
 System R (IBM San Jose)
Lead to SQL
 INGRES (Berkeley)
 Peterlee Relational Test Vehicle (IBM UK)
 Early commercial versions (based on
System R)
 Oracle (Oracle Corporation)
 DB2 (IBM)
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Relational Model: Ingredients
 The main components of the Relational
Model are tables (a two-dimensional
array).
 Tables are a realization of the
mathematical concept of a relation.
 Tables are reminiscent of the files used in
a file-based approach.
 Table  Relation  File
 The table is logical and the data does not
necessarily take this form physically.
 A table has a name.
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Table  Relation  File
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Relational Model: Ingredients
(Cont.)
 A table collects together associated data.
 A table is thought of in terms of rows and columns.
 The data in a single column is all of the same type, i.e. all
the same property.
 E.g. all of the people’s last names.
 The column (a.k.a. field) has a name and a type (e.g. text,
number, etc.).
 A table is distinct from a similar looking mathematical
object, the matrix, in that the order of the columns does not
matter.
 Column  Field  Attribute  Property
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Column  Field  Attribute 
Property
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Relational Model: Ingredients
(Cont.)
 The row (a.k.a. a record) collects together the
various properties that belong to a particular
object.
 E.g. a person’s first name, last name, date of
birth, etc.
 Again a table is distinct from a matrix, in that the
order of the rows does not matter.
 Row  Record  Tuple
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Row  Record  Tuple
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Visual Vocabulary
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More Relational Model
Vocabulary
 In addition to having a type, a field has a domain,
the set of values that the particular property is
allowed to have.
 E.g. a number must fall between 0 and 100.
 E.g. some text (string) must have two letters
followed by four numbers.
 Ensuring that a value falls within the domain is
called applying the domain constraint.
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In Microsft Access which includes forms for entering
data, there are Input masks and Validation Rules
are ways to impose domain constraints.
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Validation Rule example
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More Relational Model Vocabulary
(Cont.)
 The number of fields (tuples) in a table is
known as its degree.
 Unary relations (1-tuples)
 Binary relations (2-tuples)
 Ternary relations (3-tuples)
 N-ary relations (N-tuples)
 The number of records in a table is called
its cardinality.
 The degree is a property of the schema,
while the cardinality is a property of the
instance.
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Degree and Cardinality
cardinality
degree
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Keys
 A fields or set of fields that can be used to uniquely
identify all of the rows in a table is known as a key.
 A key should not have any extraneous fields.
 E.g. if SocSecNum uniquely identifies a person, then
you don’t need SocSecNum and LastName.
 A table may have more than one field or set of fields that
serve this purpose, they are called collectively the
candidate keys.
 One key is chosen from the candidate keys to be the
primary key.
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Keys (Cont.)
 When choosing a primary key, make sure that it
must be unique, as opposed to simply happening
to be unique for the instance you have or have in
mind.
 Because of redundancy issues, it should not
contain too many fields or fields that might
change.
 Be mindful of privacy issues, SocSecNum can be
a bad choice.
 For the reasons above, one often introduces an
ID field to serve as a primary field.
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Purpose of Keys
 Keys are used to
Uniquely identify a record as in a query
Sort the data
Establish relationships
 When one table’s key is found in another
table for the purpose of establishing a
relationship, it is known as a foreign key.
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References
 Database Systems, Rob and Coronel
 http://wwwinfo.cern.ch/db/aboutdbs/classification/hierar
chical.html
 Microsoft Access Help
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