On Conceptual Micro-Object Modeling

Abstract

While much research has been devoted to data modeling, little attention has been paid to developing constructs for modeling micro-objects. Most data models consider attributes as functions of macro-objects. This research proposes a Conceptual Micro-Object Model (CMoM), which considers the attribute as the foundation of data modeling. Other constructs such as the Conceptual Data Type Primitive (CDTP) and Attribute Group (AG) are developed to model the constituent components of attributes and objects that can be formed from attributes respectively. CMoM is useful for modeling intricate micro-objects such as dates. It also allows one to identify and resolve redundancy between conceptual macro-objects such as those modeled as entity sets and relations.