What is Data Model in DBMS

and what are its types?

Data Model
Data Model gives us an idea that how the final system will
look like after its complete implementation. It defines the
data elements and the relationships between the data
elements. Data Models are used to show how data is
stored, connected, accessed and updated in the database
management system. Some of the Data Models in DBMS
are:

1. Hierarchical Model
2. Network Model
3. Entity-Relationship Model
4. Relational Model
5. Object-Oriented Data Model

Hierarchical Model
Hierarchical Model was the first DBMS model. This model
organises the data in the hierarchical tree structure. The
hierarchy starts from the root which has root data and
then it expands in the form of a tree adding child node to
the parent node. This model easily represents some of the
real-world relationships like food recipes, sitemap of a
website etc. Example: We can represent the relationship
between the shoes present on a shopping website in the
following way:
Features of a Hierarchical Model

1. One-to-many relationship: The data here is

organised in a tree-like structure where the one-to-
many relationship is between the datatypes. Also,
there can be only one path from parent to any
node. Example: In the above example, if we want to
go to the node sneakers we only have one path to
reach there i.e through men's shoes node.
2. Parent-Child Relationship: Each child node has a
parent node but a parent node can have more than
one child node. Multiple parents are not allowed.
3. Deletion Problem: If a parent node is deleted then
the child node is automatically deleted.
4. Pointers: Pointers are used to link the parent node
with the child node and are used to navigate between
the stored data. Example: In the above example the
'shoes' node points to the two other nodes 'women
shoes' node and 'men's shoes' node.
Advantages of Hierarchical Model
  It is very simple and fast to traverse through a tree-
like structure.
 Any change in the parent node is automatically
reflected in the child node so, the integrity of data is
maintained.
Disadvantages of Hierarchical Model

 Complex relationships are not supported.

 As it does not support more than one parent of the
child node so if we have some complex relationship
where a child node needs to have two parent node
then that can't be represented using this model.
 If a parent node is deleted then the child node is
automatically deleted.

Network Model
This model is an extension of the hierarchical model. It
was the most popular model before the relational model.
This model is the same as the hierarchical model, the only
difference is that a record can have more than one parent.
It replaces the hierarchical tree with a graph. Example: In
the example below we can see that node student has two
parents i.e. CSE Department and Library. This was earlier
not possible in the hierarchical model.

Features of a Network Model

 1. Ability to Merge more Relationships: In this
model, as there are more relationships so data is
more related. This model has the ability to manage
one-to-one relationships as well as many-to-many
relationships.
2. Many paths: As there are more relationships so
there can be more than one path to the same record.
This makes data access fast and simple.
3. Circular Linked List: The operations on the network
model are done with the help of the circular linked
list. The current position is maintained with the help
of a program and this position navigates through the
records according to the relationship.
Advantages of Network Model

 The data can be accessed faster as compared to the

hierarchical model. This is because the data is more
related in the network model and there can be more
than one path to reach a particular node.
 As there is a parent-child relationship so data
integrity is present. Any change in parent record is
reflected in the child record.
Disadvantages of Network Model

 As more and more relationships need to be handled

the system might get complex. So, a user must be
having detailed knowledge of the model to work with
the model.
 Any change like updation, deletion, insertion is very
complex.

Entity-Relationship Model
Entity-Relationship Model or simply ER Model is a high-
level data model diagram. In this model, we represent the
real-world problem in the pictorial form to make it easy for
the stakeholders to understand. It is also very easy for the
developers to understand the system by just looking at the
ER diagram. We use the ER diagram as a visual tool to
represent an ER Model. ER diagram has the following three
components:

 Entities: Entity is a real-world thing. It can be a

person, place, or even a concept. Example: Teachers,
Students, Course, Building, Department, etc are some
of the entities of a School Management System.
 Attributes: An entity contains a real-world property
called attribute. This is the characteristics of that
attribute. Example: The entity teacher has the
property like teacher id, salary, age, etc.
 Relationship: Relationship tells how two attributes
are related. Example: Teacher works for a
department.
Example:

In the above diagram, the entities are Teacher and

Department. The attributes of Teacher entity are
Teacher_Name, Teacher_id, Age, Salary, Mobile_Number.
The attributes of entity Department entity are Dept_id,
Dept_name. The two entities are connected using the
relationship. Here, each teacher works for a department.
Features of ER Model

 Graphical Representation for Better

Understanding: It is very easy and simple to
understand so it can be used by the developers to
communicate with the stakeholders.
 ER Diagram: ER diagram is used as a visual tool for
representing the model.
 Database Design: This model helps the database
designers to build the database and is widely used in
database design.
Advantages of ER Model

 Simple: Conceptually ER Model is very easy to build.

If we know the relationship between the attributes
and the entities we can easily build the ER Diagram
for the model.
 Effective Communication Tool: This model is used
widely by the database designers for communicating
their ideas.
 Easy Conversion to any Model: This model maps
well to the relational model and can be easily
converted relational model by converting the ER
model to the table. This model can also be converted
to any other model like network model, hierarchical
model etc.
Disadvatages of ER Model

 No industry standard for notation: There is no

industry standard for developing an ER model. So one
developer might use notations which are not
understood by other developers.
 Hidden information: Some information might be
lost or hidden in the ER model. As it is a high-level
view so there are chances that some details of
information might be hidden.
Relational Model
Relational Model is the most widely used model. In this
model, the data is maintained in the form of a two-
dimensional table. All the information is stored in the form
of row and columns. The basic structure of a relational
model is tables. So, the tables are also called relations in
the relational model. Example: In this example, we have
an Employee table.

Features of Relational Model

 Tuples: Each row in the table is called tuple. A row

contains all the information about any instance of the
object. In the above example, each row has all the
information about any specific individual like the first
row has information about John.
 Attribute or field: Attributes are the property which
defines the table or relation. The values of the
attribute should be from the same domain. In the
above example, we have different attributes of
the employee like Salary, Mobile_no, etc.
Advnatages of Relational Model

 Simple: This model is more simple as compared to

the network and hierarchical model.
 Scalable: This model can be easily scaled as we can
add as many rows and columns we want.
  Structural Independence: We can make changes in
database structure without changing the way to
access the data. When we can make changes to the
database structure without affecting the capability to
DBMS to access the data we can say that structural
independence has been achieved.
Disadvantages of Relatinal Model

 Hardware Overheads: For hiding the complexities

and making things easier for the user this model
requires more powerful hardware computers and data
storage devices.
 Bad Design: As the relational model is very easy to
design and use. So the users don't need to know how
the data is stored in order to access it. This ease of
design can lead to the development of a poor
database which would slow down if the database
grows.
But all these disadvantages are minor as compared to the
advantages of the relational model. These problems can
be avoided with the help of proper implementation and
organisation.

Object-Oriented Data Model

The real-world problems are more closely represented
through the object-oriented data model. In this model,
both the data and relationship are present in a single
structure known as an object. We can store audio, video,
images, etc in the database which was not possible in the
relational model(although you can store audio and video in
relational database, it is adviced not to store in the
relational database). In this model, two are more objects
are connected through links. We use this link to relate one
object to other objects. This can be understood by the
example given below.
In the above example, we have two objects Employee and
Department. All the data and relationships of each object
are contained as a single unit. The attributes like Name,
Job_title of the employee and the methods which will be
performed by that object are stored as a single object. The
two objects are connected through a common attribute i.e
the Department_id and the communication between these
two will be done with the help of this common id.