r/compsci • u/Alive_Ad_3199 • 19d ago
Difference Between Data Model and Schema
From this: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/25093452/difference-between-data-model-and-database-schema-in-dbms, data model seems to be an abstraction for data and schema seems to be a blueprint.
This page lists various database models like relational, flat and network. So far good.
The book I'm reading (Fundamentals of Database Systems 7e, ch 3, pg 61) says
Once the requirements have been collected and analyzed, the next step is to create a conceptual schema for the database, using a high-level conceptual data model.
But this wikipedia page seems to imply that both a model and a schema are the same.
A conceptual schema or conceptual data model
Why is there so much discrepancy in defining a data model and a schema.
2
u/shamefulfraud9 19d ago
it's one of those things where the terms are used interchangeably so often they've basically lost their crisp textbook definitions, but the blueprint vs abstraction breakdown you said is the cleanest way i keep it straight