Book excerpt: A concise description of models and quantitative parameters in structural chemistry and their interrelations, with 280 tables and >3000 references giving the most up-to-date experimental data on energy characteristics of atoms, molecules and crystals (ionisation potentials, electron affinities, bond energies, heats of phase transitions, band and lattice energies), optical properties (refractive index, polarisability), spectroscopic characteristics and geometrical parameters (bond distances and angles, coordination numbers) of substances in gaseous, liquid and solid states, in glasses and melts, for various thermodynamic conditions. Systems of metallic, covalent, ionic and van der Waals radii, effective atomic charges and other empirical and semi-empirical models are critically revised. Special attention is given to new and growing areas: structural studies of solids under high pressures and van der Waals molecules in gases. The book is addressed to researchers, academics, postgraduates and advanced-course students in crystallography, materials science, physical chemistry of solids.