John O'Gorman asks (LinkedIn Data Modeling 2020 April)
Why do data models only include nouns?
Second, the word 'Status' is a noun, right? If I use it as the name of a set, could I include the words 'Active', 'Inactive', 'Stalled', and 'Inverted' as members of the set? If so, could I include them in a data model as Concepts even though they are clearly not nouns?
Ken Evans answers:
Not true. A proper data model has nouns and predicates that define the relationships between the nouns.
Everest responds:
First, for data modeling, I note that a noun implies a population of "things". Perhaps the hardest but most important part of building a data model is in defining the members of that population so we can always determine what is included and what is excluded from the population.
Not only nouns and predicates (verb phrases) but also adjectives, understanding that an adjective serves to restrict the population of the noun. A noun qualified by an adjective would name a subset of the noun population, e.g., Employee, and full-time Employee.
Showing posts with label noun. Show all posts
Showing posts with label noun. Show all posts
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