Mapping a Relational to an Object-Oriented Schema

database re-engineering, conceptual modelling, database schema

Relational database technology has proved to be a good solution for storing and retrieving data in many application areas. The object-oriented (OO) data model is growing in popularity in the area of database development because of both popularity of object-orientation and it offers solution to many problems that are not satisfactorily solved within the relational model of data. As a consequence there is also growing interest in converting (re-engineering) relational to OO databases and database applications in general. The paper deals with a procedure that maps a relational to an OO schema. It is based on the extraction of some fundamental OO structures - classes, associations, inheritance and aggregation, using metadata of the relational model (relation specifications, primary and foreign keys).