The Evolution of Relational Database Modeling

This chapter describes the evolution of database modeling discusses hierarchical and network database modeling. The relational database model does have strengths and weaknesses but is the most flexible solution for both storage and retrieval of large quantities of transactional information. The ultimate in relational database modeling evolution was the object-relational database model as an extension of the object database model. Any relationships and validation between different flat files would have to be programmed in manually and limited only by the power and sophistication of that manual programming. The relational database model improves on the hierarchical and network database models by lending a two-dimensional structure to data. BigData databases store data in multiple ways but with very specific functions, including columnar databases, key-store value stores, hierarchical-type document collections, and network-like graphs.