data modeling

Data modeling is the analysis of data objects that are used in a business or other context and the identification of the relationships among these data objects. Data modeling is a first step in doing object-oriented programming. As a result of data modeling, you can then define the classes that provide the templates for program objects.

A simple approach to creating a data model that allows you to visualize the model is to draw a square (or any other symbol) to represent each individual data item that you know about (for example, a product or a product price) and then to express relationships between each of these data items with words such as "is part of" or "is used by" or "uses" and so forth. From such a total description, you can create a set of classes and subclasses that define all the general relationships. These then become the templates for objects that, when executed as a program, handle the variables of new transactions and other activities in a way that effectively represents the real world.

Several differing approaches or methodologies to data modeling and its notation have recently been combined into the Unified Modeling Language (UML), which is expected to become a standard modeling language.

Do you have something to add to this definition? Let us know. Send your comments to techterms@whatis.com

Digg This!     StumbleUpon     Del.icio.us

RELATED CONTENT Greenplum brings data warehousing in the cloud indoors Greenplum's new Enterprise Data Cloud lets customers easily deploy and manage data marts on an internal cloud of commodity hardware, an approach the... SearchDataManagement.com product directory library These product directories are designed to assist organizations in evaluating and purchasing data management software In-memory technology promises faster, more flexible BI and data analysis In-memory technology could make business intelligence platforms and data warehouses quicker to deploy and easier to use, according to analysts and...

RELATED GLOSSARY TERMS Terms from Whatis.com − the technology online dictionary extract, transform, load  (SearchDataManagement.com) In managing databases, extract, transform, load (ETL) refers to three separate functions combined into a single programming tool. OLAP  (SearchDataManagement.com) OLAP (online analytical processing) enables a user to easily and selectively extract and view data from different points-of-view.