Precursors to the relational model—such as hierarchical and later,
network—models stored data with meticulous navigational information.
Relational turned out to be a better fit for the heterogeneous workloads
for the data and took care of the relationship aspects with referential
integrity. Further, relational is a good fit for types of data that are inherently
tabular and static, such as invoices, order forms, and general ledgers.