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Encyclopedia of Database Systems pp 3149–3154Cite as

Relational Model

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Synonyms

Relational database

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.

Relational Model, Fig. 1
figure 1816 figure 1816

Sample named relations of labeled data viewed as tables in the relational model

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Recommended Reading

  1. Atzeni P, De Antonellis V. Relational database theory. Redwood City: The Benjamin/Cummings Publishing Company, Inc.; 1993.

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  2. Codd EF. A relational model for large shared data banks. Commun ACM. 1970;13(6):377–487.

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  3. Elmasri R, Navathe SB. Fundamentals of Database Systems. 5th ed. Boston: Addison-Wesley; 2007.

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  4. Maier D. The theory of relational databases. Rockville: Computer Science Press, Inc.; 1983.

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  5. Silberschatz A, Korth HF, Sudarshan S. Database system concepts. 5th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill; 2006.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Brigham Young University, Provo, UT, USA

    David W. Embley

Authors
  1. David W. Embley
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Correspondence to David W. Embley .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Georgia Institute of Technology College of Computing, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Ling Liu

  2. University of Waterloo School of Computer Science, Waterloo, ON, Canada

    M. Tamer Özsu

Section Editor information

  1. Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, USA

    David W. Embley

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Embley, D.W. (2018). Relational Model. In: Liu, L., Özsu, M.T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Database Systems. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-8265-9_306

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