On Conceptual Micro-Object Modeling

While much research has been devoted to data modeling, little attention has been paid to developing constructs for modeling micro-objects, i.e. constructs for modeling low dimension objects such as the attribute Birth_Date and the data type Boolean. Most data models consider attributes as functions of macro-objects (i.e. objects formed from constructs such as entity sets, relations, and object sets). For example, the attribute Birth_Date is often modeled as a function of the entity set Person. 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. For example, redundancies between attributes in different relations can be detected. Finally, it facilitates a formal foundation for defining object-oriented concepts such as inheritance, aggregation, and encapsulation.