Before building a database, it is important to create a data model that will be used to establish the structure of the database and tables. Data models are then used to design databases. These tools help define the entities that are to be stored in the database and relationships among those entities. The entities in the models become tables in the database. Attributes become column names or fields.

Below is an example of a data model for a customer database.

Customer Orders Products PK CustomerID PK OrderID PK ProductID First_Name Sales_Rep Product_Description Last_Name Confirmation_Number Product Category Street_Address Customer_Profile Sales | ProfileID PK RepresentativelD Preference 1 Representative_Name Preference2 Representative_Email Customer Orders Products PK CustomerID PK OrderID PK ProductID First_Name Sales_Rep Product_Description Last_Name Confirmation_Number Product Category Street_Address Customer_Profile Sales | ProfileID PK RepresentativelD Preference 1 Representative_Name Preference2 Representative_Email