Patterns of Data Modeling

Appendix C

Glossary

This book defines the following terms.

abstraction the ability to focus on essential aspects of an application while ignoring details.

alternate key a candidate key that is not chosen as a primary key. Thus each candidate key is either a primary key or an alternate key. An entity type can have any number of alternate keys. (See candidate key and primary key.)

antipattern a characterization of a common software flaw. An antipattern shows what not to do and how to fix it.

archetype a prominent abstraction that cuts across problem domains. This book's archetype models are small and focus on core concepts.

attribute a named property of an entity type that describes a value held by each entity of the entity type.

candidate key ...