Database Management Systems Unit 5

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Unit 5 Entity-Relationship Model
Structure
5.1 Introduction
Objectives
Self Assessment Question(s) (SAQs)
5.2 Conceptual Data model for Database Design
Self Assessment Question(s) (SAQs)
5.3 ER Model Concept with an example:
5.3.1 Components of an ER Model
5.3.2 Different types of Attributes
Self Assessment Question(s) (SAQs)
5.4 Relationships, Roles and Structural Constraints
5.4.1 Relationships
5.4.2 Degree of relationship type
Self Assessment Question(s) (SAQs)
5.5 Constraints on Relationship Types
Self Assessment Question(s) (SAQs)
5.6 Summary
5.7 Terminal Questions (TQs)
5.8 Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs)
5.9 Answers to SAQs, TQs, and MCQs
5.9.1 Answers to Self Assessment Questions (SAQs)
5.9.2 Answers to Terminal Questions (TQs)
5.9.3 Answers to Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs)
5.1 Introduction
Entity-relationship model is used to represent objects in the real world and
the relationship among these objects, which represents the overall logical
structure of a database. We have also seen that the data model that is
independent of both the DBMS software and the hardware is the conceptual
model. ER model is a high-level conceptual model developed by Chen in
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1976 to facilitate database design. The ER model is extremely useful in
mapping the meaning and interaction of real world enterprises onto a
conceptual schema. The main usage is in the design of the database
Relations:
Consider a relation called PART of degree 5. The five domains are sets of
values representing, respectively, part numbers, part names, part weights,
part colors, and locations in which parts are stores. The 'part color' domain,
for example, is the set of all valid part colors.
As the figure illustrates, it is convenient to represent a relation as a table.
Each row of the table represents one n-tuple [or simply one tuple] of the
relation. The number of tuples in a relation is called the cardinality of the
relation; e.g., the cardinality of the PART relation is four.
Relations of degree one are said to be unary; similarly relations of degree
two are binary.
Part Relation:
P# PNAME COLOUR WEIGHT CITY
P1 Nut Red 12 London
P2 Bolt Green 17 Parts
P3 Screw Blue 17 Rome
P4 Screw Red 14 London
Objectives
To know about:
o Conceptual Data model for database design
o ER model concept with an example:
o Components of An ER Model
o Different types of Attributes
o Relationships, Roles and Structural Constraints
o Relationships
o Constraints On Relationship Types
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Self Assessment Question(s) (SAQs) (For section 5.1)
1. Why do you need E-R Model? (5.1)
2. Explain the concept of relations. (5.1)
5.2 Conceptual Data model for database design:
Fig: 5.1
Phase of database design (Simplified)
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The first step in database design is requirement collection and analysis.
During this step database designers interview clients to get their
requirements. Without getting the exact requirement from the client it would
become very difficult to design a good ER diagram. It is useful to specify
functional requirements of the application. Data flow diagrams are used to
specify functional requirements.
The next step in the application development is to create a conceptual
schema for the database. The conceptual schema is one that describes the
data type, relationship and constrains. This step is called conceptual
database design.
This concept does not include any implementation details as well as storage
details. It are usually easier to understand and can also be used to
communicate with non-technical users.
After conceptual schema has been designed, the next step in database
design is the actual implementation of the database, using a commercial
DBMS like oracle, MS access etc. This step is called logical database
design.
Finally the last step is the physical database design phase. During this, the
internal storage structure and file organization for the database are
specified.
Self Assessment Question(s) (SAQs) (For section 5.2)
1. Explain different steps in database design.
5.3 ER model concept with an example
The basic representation of ER model is given below. After the
requirement, collection and analysis phase, we create its conceptual
schema step by step by using ER model concepts.
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E.g.: Company database consists of
Several departments and each department has a manager.
Several employees work for a department.
A department may have several locations.
Each department controls several projects.
We store each employee's name, SSN, address,. An employee is
assigned to one department but may work on several departments. We
keep track of the number of hours per week that an employee works on
each project.
We need to keep track of employee department information for the
purpose of insurance etc.
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Figure 5.2: The ER conceptual schema diagram for the new COMPANY
database
Notations for entity relationship diagrams:
The main advantage of the ER model is its simplicity, which helps in the
understanding of the overall structure of a database. An ER diagram
includes the following components.
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Figure5.3:Notations
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5.3.1 Components of an ER Model: The ER diagram represents three
main concepts.
1. Entities: The fundamental item in any ER model is the entity which is
a "thing" in the real world with an independent existence that is
distinguishable from all other objects.
E.g.: each employee in an organization is an entity. A company, a job,
a book etc. all are entities. Each entity has particular properties called
attributes that describe it.
E.g.: An employee entity may be described by the employees name,
age, address, salary etc.
2. Entity Sets: It is a set of entities of the same type that share the same
properties or attributes. The set of all employees working for the same
department can be defined as the entity set employee, but each entity
has its own values for each attribute.
Entity Type Name: Employee Company
Attributes: Name, Age, Salary Name, Headquarters, President
e
1
c
1
(J ohn Smith, 55, 80K) (Sunco Oil, Houston, J ohn Smith)
Entity Set
(Extension) e
2
c
2
(Fred Brown, 40, 30K) (Fast Computer, Dellas, Bob King)
e
3
(J udy Clerk, 25, 20K)
3. Attributes: A set of properties
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5.3.2 Different types of Attributes: Each attribute is associated with a set
of values called domain.
1. Simple And Composite Attributes:
Simple attributes are not divided into sub parts. They are also called atomic
attributes, e.g.: AGE.
Composite attributes can be divided into sub parts with an independent
meaning of their own. E.g.: Address attribute can be composed of
components like street number, area, city, pin code.
Address
Street number Area City
2. Single Valued and Multivalued Attributes:
A single valued attribute is one that holds a single value for a single entity.
E.g.: Age, room-number.
Multi valued attribute is one that holds multiple values for a single entity.
E.g.: college degree attribute for studies [B.S., M.Sc. Ph.D]
3. Derived Attributes: Is one that represents a value that is derived from
the value of a related attribute.
E.g.: The value of an Age can be determined from the current date [todays]
and the value of that person's birthday, the age attribute, is hence called
derived attribute and is said to be derivable from the birthday attribute which
is called a stored attribute.
Pin code
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4. Null Attribute: A null value attribute is used when an attribute does not
have any value. A null value does not mean that the value is equal to zero,
but indicates no value is stored for that attribute.
E.g.: Apartment number attribute of an address applies only to address that
are in apartment buildings and not in other types of residence such as
single-family homes.
E-mail: All employees in an employee database may not have e-mail
addresses.
5. Key Attribute: An entity type usually has an attribute whose values are
distinct for each individual entity. Such an attribute is called a key attribute.
These attributes which uniquely identify every instance of the entity are
termed as the primary key.
Value sets or Domain attributes:
Each attribute is associated with a set of values called domain of that
attribute; assume that values from a set of permitted values. E.g.: range of
ages allowed for employees is between 18 and 58. Domain of the attribute
name might be a set of all text strings of a certain length; mathematically an
attribute A of entity type E whose value set is V can be defined as a function
from E to the power set P(v) or V as A:E--- >P(v).
Self Assessment Question(s) (SAQs) (For section 5.3)
1. Explain the E-R Model with the help of one example
2. Write and explain different notations used in the E-R Model.
3. Write and explain different components of the E-R Model.
4. List different types of attributes and explain each one of them by giving
one example.
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5.4 Relationships, Roles and Structural Constraints
5.4.1 Relationships: In the real world, items have relationships to one
another. E.g.: A book is published by a particular publisher. The association
or relationship that exists between the entities relates data items to each
other in a meaningful way. A relationship is an association between entities.
A collection of relationships of the same type is called a relationship set.
A relationship type R is a set of associations between E, E2..En entity
types mathematically, R is a set of relationship instances ri.
E.g.: Consider a relationship type WORKS_FOR between two entity types -
employee and department, which associates each employee with the
department the employee works for. Each relationship instance in
WORKS_FOR associates one employee entity and one department entity,
where each relationship instance is ri which connects employee and
department entities that participate in ri.
Employee el, e3 and e6 work for department d1, e2 and e4 work for d2 and
e5 and e7 work for d3. Relationship type R is a set of all relationship
instances.
Figure 5.4: Some instances of the WORKS_FOR relationship
5.4.2 Degree of relationship type: The number of entity sets that
participate in a relationship set. A unary relationship exists when an
association is maintained with a single entity.
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A binary relationship exists when two entities are associated.
A tertiary relationship exists when there are three entities associated.

Figure 5.5: Degree of relationship type
Role Names and Recursive Relationship
Each entry type to participate in a relationship type plays a particular role in
the relationship. The role name signifies the role that a participating entity
from the entity type plays in each relationship instance, e.g.: In the WORKS
FOR relationship type, the employee plays the role of employee or worker
and the department plays the role of department or employer. However in
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some cases the same entity type participates more than once in a
relationship type in different roles. Such relationship types are called
recursive.
E.g.: employee entity type participates twice in SUPERVISION once in the
role of supervisor and once in the role of supervisee.
Self Assessment Question(s) (SAQs) (For Section 5.4)
Define Relationship set, role.
5.5 Constraints on Relationship Types
Relationship types usually have certain constraints that limit the possible
combination of entities that may participate in the relationship instance.
E.g.: If the company has a rule that each employee must work for exactly
one department. The two main types of constraints are cardinality ratio and
participation constraints.
The cardinality ratio specifies the number of entities to which another entity
can be associated through a relationship set.
Mapping cardinalities should be one of the following.
One-to-One: An entity in A is associated with at most one entity in B and
vice versa.
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Employee can manage only one department and that a department has only
one manager.
One-to-Many: An entity in A is associated with any number in B. An entity
in B however can be associated with at most one entity in A.


Each department can be related to numerous employees but an employee
can be related to only one department
Many-to-One: An entity in A is associated with at most one entity in B. An
entity in B however can be associated with any number of entities in A.
Many depositors deposit into a single account.

Man-to-Many: An entity in A is associated with any number of entities in B
and an entity in B is associated with any number of entities in A.
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An employee can work on several projects and several employees can work
on a project.
Participation Constraints: There are two ways an entity can participate in
a relationship where there are two types of participations.
1. Total: The participation of an entity set E in a relationship set R is said
to be total if every entity in E participates in at lest one relationship in R.
Every employee must work for a department. The participation of employee
in WORK FOR is called total.

Figure 5.6: Some instances of the WORKS_FOR relationship
Total participation is some times called existence dependency.
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2. Partial: If only some entities in E participate in relationship in R, the
participation of entityset E in relationship R is said to be partial.
Figure 5.7: Some instances of the WORKS_FOR relationship
We do not expect every employee to manage a department, so the
participation of employee in MANAGES relationship type is partial.
Weak Entity: Some entity types may not have any key attribute of their
own, they are called weak entity types. An entity set that has a primary key
is termed as a strong entity type. A weak entity type always has a total
participation [existence dependence] with respect to a strong entity.
A weak entity type is dependent on the existence of another entity. Weak
entity is also referred to as child, dependent OR subordinate entities, and
strong entities as parent, owner OR dominant entities. E.g.: In the following
relationship PARENT is a weak entity as it needs the entity EMPLOYEE for
its existence. The entities EMPLOYEE, COMPANY etc. are strong entities.
Weak entities are represented by a double lined rectangle.
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Self Assessment Question(s) (SAQs) (For Section 5.5)
1. Explain the constraints on relationship types
2. Define Weak entity set and give one example.
5.6 Summary
In this Unit we have learnt the following topics.
o Conceptual Data model for database design
o ER model concept with an example:
o Components of an ER Model
o Different types of Attributes
o Relationships, Roles and Structural Constraints
o Relationships
o Constraints On Relationship Types
5.7 Terminal Questions (TQs)
1. Discuss the term entity.
2. What is an entity set ? Explain the differences among an entity an entity
type & an entity set.
3. Explain difference between an attributes & a value set.
Explain the following
a) Key attribution
b) Compose attribution
c) Domains of attributes
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4. What is relationship Type? Explain the difference among a relationship
Instance, relationship type & a relationship set.
5.8 Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs)
1. .. is one that describes the data type, relationship and constrains.
a) The conceptual schema
b) Physical Schema
c) Database
d) None of the above
2. We create conceptual schema step by step by using concepts.
a) ER model
b) Data model
c) Design
d) None of the above
3. is a set of entities of the same type that share the same properties or
attributes
a) Relationship set
b) Entity set
c) Entity
d) None of the above
4. . Refers to the number of entity sets that participate in a
relationship set.
a) Degree of the relationship
b) Unary relationship
c) Binary relationships
d) None of the above
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5.9 Answers to SAQs, TQs, and MCQs
5.9.1 Answers to Self Assessment Questions (SAQs)
For Section 5.1
1. Entity-relationship model represents the overall logical structure of a
database. (Refer section5.1)
2. It is an association among entities. (Refer section 5.1)
For Section 5.2
1. The first step in database design is requirement collection and analysis.
(Refer section 5.2)
For Section 5.3
1. The basic representation of ER model is given in section 5.3. After the
requirement, collection and analysis phase, we create its conceptual
schema step by step by using ER model concepts.
E.g.: Company database (Refer section 5.3)
2. Notations :
The main advantage of ER model is its simplicity, which helps in the
understanding of the overall structure of a database. An ER diagram
includes many components (Refer section5.3)
3. Components of an ER Model: The ER diagram represents three main
concepts (Refer section 5.3.1)
4. Attributes: A set of properties.
Different types of Attributes:
Simple and Composite Attribute etc. (Refer section 5.3.2)
For Section 5.4
1. A collection of relationships of the same type is called the relationship
set. The role name signifies the role that a participating entity from the
entity type plays in each relationship instance. (Refer section 5.4.1)
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For Section 5.5
1. The cardinality ratio specifies the number of entities to which another
entity can be associated through a relationship set. (Refer section 5.5)
2. Weak Entity: Some entity type may not have any key attribute of their
own; they are called weak entity type. An entity set that has a primary
key is termed as a strong entity type. A weak entity type always has a
total participation [existence dependence] with respect to strong entity.
(Refer section5.5)
5.9.2 Answers to Terminal Questions (TQs)
1. The fundamental item in any ER model is the entity which is a "thing" in
the real world, with an independent existence that is distinguishable from
all other objects. (Refer section 5.3.1)
2. It is a set of entities of the same type that share the same properties or
attributes. (Refer section5.3.1)
3. An attribute is a set of properties. Each attribute is associated with a set
of values called domain. (Refer section5.3.2)
4. In the real world, items have relationships tone another. E.g. A book is
published by a particular publisher. The association or relationship that
exists between the entities relates data items to each other in a
meaningful way. A relationship is an association between entities.
(Refer section 5.4.1)
5.9.3 Answers to Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs)
1. A
2. A
3. B
4. A