34.6. Pattern: Representing Objects as Tables
How do you map an object to a record or relational database schema?
The Representing Objects as Tables pattern [BW96] proposes defining a table in an RDB for each persistent object class. Object attributes containing primitive data types (number, string, boolean, and so on) map to columns.
If an object has only attributes of primitive data types, the mapping is straightforward. But as we will see, matters are not that simple, since objects may have attributes that refer to other complex objects, while the relational model requires that values be atomic (that is, First Normal Form) (see Figure 34.1).
Figure 34.1. Mapping objects and tables.
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