Editing Data modeling (section)

=== Generic data modeling ===
{{main|Generic data model}}
[[File:HL7 Reference Information Model.jpg|thumb|320px|Example of a Generic data model.<ref>Amnon Shabo (2006). [http://healthit.hhs.gov/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=1263&mode=2 Clinical genomics data standards for pharmacogenetics and pharmacogenomics] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090722232240/http://healthit.hhs.gov/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=1263&mode=2 |date=July 22, 2009 }}.</ref>]]
Generic data models are generalizations of conventional [[data model]]s. They define standardized general relation types, together with the kinds of things that may be related by such a relation type. 
The definition of the generic data model is similar to the definition of a natural language. For example, a generic data model may define relation types such as a 'classification relation', being a [[binary relation]] between an individual thing and a kind of thing (a class) and a 'part-whole relation', being a binary relation between two things, one with the role of part, the other with the role of whole, regardless the kind of things that are related.

Given an extensible list of classes, this allows the classification of any individual thing and to specification of part-whole relations for any individual object. By standardization of an extensible list of relation types, a generic data model enables the expression of an unlimited number of kinds of facts and will approach the capabilities of natural languages. Conventional data models, on the other hand, have a fixed and limited domain scope, because the instantiation (usage) of such a model only allows expressions of kinds of facts that are predefined in the model.