Chapter 3: Different Forms of the Relational Database Model

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Overview

Over the years since the relational database model was first invented the art of data modeling in relational databases has evolved somewhat. From the perspective of commercial applications this evolving process has often been the result of the changing methodologies used by software application development kits or SDKs.

The most significant change in recent years to the way relational database models are built has been the advent of objects. Data structures most efficiently used by object-oriented Java and C++ are generally very different to those that would have been used by a procedural programming language such as C or Modula-2. Let's start from the first ideas of relational database modeling and work our way up to data models used by modern online Java object applications.

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