Database Design Methodology : Converting a Relational Schema into an Object-Relational Schema

The objective of this paper is to give a brief review of relational design methodology, and show how a relational schema can be converted into an object-relational schema. We first introduce relational terminology and describe the relational design process along with its limitations. Next we show how the relational model can be extended to overcome these limitations : these extensions form the core of an object-relational data model ; we use the UniSQL/X data model as an example. We illustrate the process or converting a relational schema into an object-relational schema, and show the benefits of this conversion with respect to queries. The conversion process is then summarized as a set of guidelines. Finally, we make our conclusions.