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0534 Relational Schemas

Model 0534 describes the parts of a relational schema. These are used in relational databases represented by the Database or DeployedDatabaseSchema entity. There are multiple tables and views defined within the relational schema. The columns are within both the tables and views.

UML

RelationalDBSchemaType

The starting entity for a relational schema (known as the RootSchemaType) is the RelationalDBSchemaType. It is linked to one or more RelationalTable entities using the AttributeForSchema relationship.

RelationalTable

The RelationalTable entity represents a table in a relational schema. RelationalTable inherits from SchemaAttribute. The schema type to use with a RelationalTable is RelationalTableType.

RelationalTableType

RelationalTableType is the schema type for a RelationalTable entity. It inherits from ComplexSchemaType to show that it is made up of multiple elements - in this case, the elements are RelationalColumn entities.

Choices on representing the schema type for a relational table

The type information for each table is typically embedded in the RelationalTable through the TypeEmbeddedAttribute classification. The typeName attribute of this classification is set to RelationalTableType.

Older implementations of the open metadata types may use a separate SchemaType entity linked to the RelationalTable via the SchemaAttributeType relationship.

Choices on linking a relational table to a relational column

If the RelationalTable entity has the TypeEmbeddedAttribute classification, it is connected to its RelationalColumn entities using the NestedSchemaAttribute relationship.

Otherwise the associated RelationalTableType entity is linked to the RelationalColumn via the AttributeForSchema relationship.

Representing relational views

A relational view is a relational query that returns a table as its results. It may retrieve data from multiple tables and these tables may be stored in multiple database.

A relational view is represented as a RelationalTable entity with the CalculatedValue classification attached. The query string used to create the view is stored in the formula attribute.

RelationalColumn

A RelationalColumn entity represents a column in a relational table. It inherits from SchemaAttribute.

Choices on representing the schema type for a relational column

The type information for each column is typically embedded in the RelationalColumn through the TypeEmbeddedAttribute classification. The typeName attribute in the classification is set to the name of the SchemaType that represents the type of data stored in the column.

Older implementations of the open metadata types may use a separate SchemaType entity linked to the RelationalColumn via the SchemaAttributeType relationship.

Representing a derived relational column

Some columns in a relational table are calculated from other data. For example a relational table may include both a date of birth and an age column for a person. Only date of birth is stored and the age is calculated from the date of birth and the current date each time the table is retrieved.

Columns that are calculated on retrieval are called derived relational columns. Such a derived relational column is represented by a RelationalColumn entity with an attached CalculatedValue classification.

PrimaryKey

The PrimaryKey classification can be attached to a RelationalColumn to indicate that the value stored for this column in each row of the table is a unique identifier for the row.

ForeignKey

The ForeignKey relationship links a relational column in one relational table to a relational column in another relational table.

It indicates that the values stored in the first relational column are values from the second relational column. Typically, the second relational column is a PrimaryKey.

Foreign keys are used to represent relationships between relational tables.

Deprecated types