Data Models: Entity Relationship Data Model
Data Models: Entity Relationship Data Model
1. Entity
2. Attribute
3. Relationship
Entity
An entity is an object or component of data. An entity is represented as rectangle in an
ER diagram.
For example: In the following ER diagram we have two entities Student and College and
these two entities have many to one relationship as many students study in a single
college. We will read more about relationships later, for now focus on entities.
Attribute
An attribute describes the property of an entity. An attribute is represented as Oval in
an ER diagram.
Relationship
A relationship is represented by diamond shape in ER diagram, it shows the relationship
among entities. There are four types of relationships:
1. One to One
2. One to Many
3. Many to One
4. Many to Many
The semantic data model is a relatively new approach that is based on semantic
principles that result in a data set with inherently specified data structures. Usually,
singular data or a word does not convey any meaning to humans, but paired with a
context this word inherits more meaning.
Object-Oriented Database
An object-oriented database is a database that subscribes to a model with information
represented by objects. Object-oriented databases are a niche offering in the relational
database management system (RDBMS) field and are not as successful or well-known as
mainstream database engines. As the name implies, the main feature of object-oriented
databases is allowing the definition of objects, which are different from normal
database objects. Objects, in an object-oriented database, reference the ability to
develop a product, then define and name it. The object can then be referenced, or
called later, as a unit without having to go into its complexities. This is very similar to
objects used in object-oriented programming.