Hierarchical data type

This transitive closure problem is endemic to data management problems, and not particularly well addressed by the relational model. The same basic problem is found modeling organizational hierarchies, networks, manufacturing and process control databases.

You can use the node data type to improve query performance for many recursive queries. Using the node data type can also ease the burden of transitive dependency in the relational database model. Transitive dependency occurs when a non-key attribute is dependent on another non-key attribute. This relationship frequently has multiple levels of attribute dependency. The problem usually is seen when you model organizational hierarchies, networks, and databases for manufacturing and process control.