Data Modeling, A Beginner's Guide

Chapter 2Relational Model Components

Key Skills & Concepts

• Entities

• Attributes

• Relationships

• Business Rules

• Tables

• Columns and Data Types

• Constraints

• Views

This chapter introduces the basic components used to construct relational data models. Generally two sets of names are used for these components—one referring to abstract objects found in conceptual and logical data models, and the other referring to physical objects found in physical models and relational databases implemented from them. However, practitioners are somewhat inconsistent about which set of terms to use in logical data models. This is only natural because the logical model often represents a hybrid layer between the conceptual and physical models. On the one ...