Conceptual /internal

mapping

Ayesha Nazeer
Conceptual / internal mapping
• The conceptual/internal mapping defines the correspondence between
the conceptual view and the store database.
• It specifies how conceptual record and fields are represented at the
internal level.
• It relates conceptual schema with internal schema.
• If structure of the store database is changed.
• If changed is made to the storage structure definition-then the
conceptual/internal mapping must be changed accordingly, so that the
conceptual schema can remain invariant.
• There could be one mapping between conceptual and internal levels.
 External/Conceptual Mapping:

• The external/conceptual mapping defines the correspondence between a

particular external view and conceptual view.
• It relates each external schema with conceptual schema.
• The differences that can exist between these two levels are analogous to those
that can exist between the conceptual view and the stored database.
• Example: fields can have different data types; fields and record name can be
changed; several conceptual fields can be combined into a single external field.
• Any number of external views can exist at the same time; any number of users
can share a given external view: different external views can overlap.
• There could be several mapping between external and conceptual levels.
Data independence
• Data independence is ability to modify a schema definition in one
level without affecting a schema definition in the next higher level.
• There are two levels of data independence:
• Physical Data Independence 1) view level
• Logical Data Independence 2) conceptual level
3) physical schema
Physical Data Independence:

• . Physical Data Independence is the ability to modify the physical schema

without requiring any change in application programs.
• Modifications at the internal levels are occasionally necessary to improve
performance. possible modifications at internal levels are change in file
structures, compression techniques, hashing algorithms, storage devices, etc.
• Physical data independence separates conceptual levels from the internal
levels.
• This allows to provide a logical description of the database without the need
to specify physical structures.
• Comparatively, it is easy to achieve physical data independence.
Logical Data Independence:

• Logical data independence is ability to modify the conceptual schema

without requiring any change in application programs.
• Modification at the logical levels are necessary whenever the logical
structures of the database is altered.
• Logical data independence separates external level from the conceptual
view.
• Comparatively it is difficult to achieve logical data independence.
• Application programs are heavily dependent on logical structures of the
data they access.so any change in logical structure also requires
programs to change.
Data Models
• The structure of the database is called the data models. A Collection
of conceptual tools for describing data, data relationship, data
semantic and consistency constraint.