- A hierarchical data model is designed to store hierarchies. (Duh!)
- Arbitrary levels of "master/detail", to use ancient terminology.
- About the businessy nature of the discussion: The problem being
solved in the 70s was using relational databases for business
applications.
- Customers, orders, products
- Master/detail: E.g., invoice and lines.
Example
- A Customer has zero or more Orders.
- An Order has one or more Items.
- Each Item references a Product.
- A Customer has zero or more Invoices.