Data Models in DBMS | Data Model Schema and Instance

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Data Model is the modeling of the data description, data semantics, and consistency constraints of the data. It provides the conceptual tools for describing the design of a database at each level of data abstraction. Data models define how the logical structure of a database is modeled. Data Models are fundamental entities to introduce abstraction in a DBMS. Data models define how data is connected to each other and how they are processed and stored inside the system. The very first data model could be flat data-models, where all the data used are to be kept in the same plane. Earlier data models were not so scientific, hence they were prone to introduce lots of duplication and update anomalies. Therefore, there are following four data models used for understanding the structure of the database:

Entity-Relationship Model

Entity-Relationship (ER) Model is based on the notion of real-world entities and relationships among them. While formulating real-world scenario into the database model, the ER Model creates entity set, relationship set, general attributes and constraints. ER Model is best used for the conceptual design of a database.

ER Model is based on −

  • Entities and their attributes.
  • Relationships among entities.

These concepts are explained below.

  • Entity − An entity in an ER Model is a real-world entity having properties called attributes. Every attribute is defined by its set of values called domain. For example, in a school database, a student is considered as an entity. Student has various attributes like name, age, class, etc.
  • Relationship − The logical association among entities is called relationship. Relationships are mapped with entities in various ways. Mapping cardinalities define the number of association between two entities.Mapping cardinalities −
    • one to one
    • one to many
    • many to one
    • many to many
Data Models

1) Relational Data Model: This type of model designs the data in the form of rows and columns within a table. Thus, a relational model uses tables for representing data and in-between relationships. Tables are also called relations. This model was initially described by Edgar F. Codd, in 1969. The relational data model is the widely used model which is primarily used by commercial data processing applications. The most popular data model in DBMS is the Relational Model. It is more scientific a model than others. This model is based on first-order predicate logic and defines a table as an n-ary relation.

Relational Model Table

The main highlights of this model are −

  • Data is stored in tables called relations.
  • Relations can be normalized.
  • In normalized relations, values saved are atomic values.
  • Each row in a relation contains a unique value.
  • Each column in a relation contains values from a same domain.

2) Entity-Relationship Data Model: An ER model is the logical representation of data as objects and relationships among them. These objects are known as entities, and relationship is an association among these entities. This model was designed by Peter Chen and published in 1976 papers. It was widely used in database designing. A set of attributes describe the entities. For example, student_name, student_id describes the ‘student’ entity. A set of the same type of entities is known as an ‘Entity set’, and the set of the same type of relationships is known as ‘relationship set’.

Modeling with ERD - Support - BiZZdesign Support

3) Object-based Data Model: An extension of the ER model with notions of functions, encapsulation, and object identity, as well. This model supports a rich type system that includes structured and collection types. Thus, in 1980s, various database systems following the object-oriented approach were developed. Here, the objects are nothing but the data carrying its properties.

Object based Data Models - Object Oriented Data Models - Advantages -  Disadvantages

4) Semistructured Data Model: This type of data model is different from the other three data models (explained above). The semistructured data model allows the data specifications at places where the individual data items of the same type may have different attributes sets. The Extensible Markup Language, also known as XML, is widely used for representing the semistructured data. Although XML was initially designed for including the markup information to the text document, it gains importance because of its application in the exchange of data.

Semi-Structured Data Model | SpringerLink

Data model Schema and Instance

A database schema is the skeleton structure that represents the logical view of the entire database. It defines how the data is organized and how the relations among them are associated. It formulates all the constraints that are to be applied on the data. A database schema defines its entities and the relationship among them. It contains a descriptive detail of the database, which can be depicted by means of schema diagrams. It’s the database designers who design the schema to help programmers understand the database and make it useful.

  • The data which is stored in the database at a particular moment of time is called an instance of the database.
  • The overall design of a database is called schema.
  • A database schema is the skeleton structure of the database. It represents the logical view of the entire database.
  • A schema contains schema objects like table, foreign key, primary key, views, columns, data types, stored procedure, etc.
  • A database schema can be represented by using the visual diagram. That diagram shows the database objects and relationship with each other.
  • A database schema is designed by the database designers to help programmers whose software will interact with the database. The process of database creation is called data modeling.

A schema diagram can display only some aspects of a schema like the name of record type, data type, and constraints. Other aspects can’t be specified through the schema diagram. For example, the given figure neither show the data type of each data item nor the relationship among various files. In the database, actual data changes quite frequently. For example, in the given figure, the database changes whenever we add a new grade or add a student. The data at a particular moment of time is called the instance of the database.

DBMS Data model Schema and Instance
Data Models in DBMS | Data Model Schema and Instance
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