Synonyms
Definition
The Relational Model describes data as named relations of labeled values. For example, customer ID’s can relate with customer names and addresses in the relational model as Customer: {<(CustomerID, 11111), (Name, Pat), (Address, 12 Maple)>, <(CustomerID, 22222), (Name, Tracy), (Address, 44 Elm)>}. In this example, there is a name for the relation - Customer; label-value pairs - e.g., (CustomerID, 11111), which provide the labeled values; and tuples - e.g., <(CustomerID, 11111), (Name, Pat), (Address, 12 Maple)>, which are the tuples of the named relation.
Usually, the relations of the relational model are viewed as tables. Fig. 1 shows an example of several relations viewed as tables. Together, they constitute a relational database. The first table in Fig. 1 is the table view of the relation described in the previous paragraph.
Recommended Reading
Atzeni P, De Antonellis V. Relational database theory. Redwood City: The Benjamin/Cummings Publishing Company, Inc.; 1993.
Codd EF. A relational model for large shared data banks. Commun ACM. 1970;13(6):377–487.
Elmasri R, Navathe SB. Fundamentals of Database Systems. 5th ed. Boston: Addison-Wesley; 2007.
Maier D. The theory of relational databases. Rockville: Computer Science Press, Inc.; 1983.
Silberschatz A, Korth HF, Sudarshan S. Database system concepts. 5th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill; 2006.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Section Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer Science+Business Media LLC
About this entry
Cite this entry
Embley, D.W. (2016). Relational Model. In: Liu, L., Özsu, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Database Systems. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-7993-3_306-2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-7993-3_306-2
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Online ISBN: 978-1-4899-7993-3
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Computer SciencesReference Module Computer Science and Engineering