STRUCTURING PRIMITIVES FOR A DICTIONARY OF ENTITY-RELATIONSHIP DATA SCHEMAS

The data dictionary contains the description of all types of data produced, managed, exchanged, and maintained in an organization. Data descriptions (very often hundreds of schemas) should be organized in such a way to allow all the users of the information system to understand the meaning of data and their relationships. In this paper, a new set of structuring primitives is presented for a dictionary of entity relationship data schemas. The formal properties of such structuring primitives are investigated and the feasibility of their usage is shown by providing a methodology for dictionary design.