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Adaptive data models

  • August 21, 2016 at 7:09 am

    #329484

    I am looking for literature or online resources on adaptive data models. Any pointers would be much appreciated.

    There are no special teachers of virtue, because virtue is taught by the whole community.
    --Plato

  • August 22, 2016 at 6:27 am

    #1896617

    My understanding is that "adaptive data modeling" is basically the opposite of normalization. It's where you are not modeling entities upfront using fixed attributes, but rather have a data model that is meta-data driven. Entity-Attribute-Value (EAV) is one approach that is commonly used to simulate adaptive data modeling in SQL Server. Within the context of SQL Server, there are also hybrid approaches that have a generally normalized design but also leverage EAV, XML columns, or Sparse Columns to support extraneous ad-hoc attributes.

    But really, SQL Server is not the best database engine for adaptive data modeling.

    "Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho

  • August 22, 2016 at 6:47 am

    #1896630

    Eric M Russell (8/22/2016)

    My understanding is that "adaptive data modeling" is basically the opposite of normalization. It's where you are not modeling entities upfront using fixed attributes, but rather have a data model that is meta-data driven. Entity-Attribute-Value (EAV) is one approach that is commonly used to simulate adaptive data modeling in SQL Server. Within the context of SQL Server, there are also hybrid approaches that have a generally normalized design but also leverage EAV, XML columns, or Sparse Columns to support extraneous ad-hoc attributes.

    But really, SQL Server is not the best database engine for adaptive data modeling.

    Thanks for the reply, Eric. Fair enough on your SQL Server comment. I have done my fair share of EAV work (mostly in SQL Server) and in principle I tend to agree. Adaptive modeling seems to take it further. Your comment about metadata being present to describe the data model in play is where the one text that I ran into this in, Agile Analytics by Collier, takes it but I cannot seem to find any resources with depth to learn more.

    There are no special teachers of virtue, because virtue is taught by the whole community.
    --Plato

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