Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................................2 TYPES OF DATABASE MODELS................................................................................................2 Relational databases..............................................................................................................................2 Figure-1....................................................................................3 Hierarchical databases......................................................................................................................3 Figure-2....................................................................................3 Network databases.................................................................................................................................3 Figure-3...................................................................................4

DATABASE MODELS
INTRODUCTION
A database model is the theoretical foundation of a database and fundamentally determines in which manner data can be stored, organized, and manipulated in a database system. It thereby defines the infrastructure offered by a particular database system.

TYPES OF DATABASE MODELS

1.Relational Model 2.Hierarchical Model 3.Network Model

Relational databases
The relational database relates or connects data in different files through the use of a key field, or common data elementA flat file structure is used with a relational database model. In this arrangement, data elements are stored in different tables or files made up of rows and columns. In database terminology, tables are called "relations", rows are called "tuples" and columns are called "attributes". In a table, a row resembles a record-for example, a student`s GPA record has a field of "student name", a field of "GPA", a field of "Address" and a field of "phone number". In this table, a student is described by a record or a combination of fields. The advantage of a relational database is that the manager does not have to be aware of any data structure or data pointer. Managers can easily add, update, delete or create records using simple logic. However, a disadvantage is that some search commands in a relational database require more time to process compared with other database models.

Figure-1

Hierarchical databases
In a hierarchical database, fields and records are arranged in a family tree, with lower-level records subordinate to higher-level records.In a hierarchical database, a parent record may have more than one child, but a child always has only one parent. This is called a one-to-many relationship. To locate a particular record, you have to start at the top of the tree with a parent record and trace down the tree to the child. Hierarchical databases are the oldest of the four data models, and still used in some reservation systems. In addition, accessing records or updating records are very fast since the relationships have been predefined. The drawback of hierarchical data models is that the structure is quite rigid and adding new records to the database may require that the entire database be redefined.

Figure-2

Network databases
A network database is similar to a hierarchical database except that each child can have more than one parent record. In other words, a child record is referred to as a "member" and a parent record is referred to as an "owner". The advantage of the network database is its ability to establish relationships between different branches of data records and thus offer increased access capability for the manager. However, like the hierarchical database, the data record relationships must be predefined prior to the use of the database and must be redefined if records are added or updated.

Figure-3