Database Design

CS341
Database Design Methodology
 Three main phases
 Conceptual database design
 Logical database design
 Physical database design

Conceptual Design

Logical Design

Physical Design
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Phases in DB Design
 Conceptual Database Design
 The process of constructing a model of the data used in an
enterprise
 Discovering and analyzing organizational and user data
requirements
 Logical Database Design
 the process of deciding how to arrange the attributes of the
entities into database tables of a relational database.
 The goal is to create well structured tables that properly reflect
the company's business environment
 Based on a specific DATA MODEL (e.g. relational)
 Independent of a particular DBMS

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Phases in DB Design (cont.)
 Physical Database Design
 The process of producing a description of the implementation of
the database on secondary storage
 It describes the base relations, file organizations, and indexes
design used to achieve efficient access to the data
 Any associated integrity constraints and security measures are
included
 It is DEPENDENT on our choice of the particular DBMS that we
want to use
 We will describe the plan for how to build the tables
 Appropriate data types
 Field sizes
 Indexes

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Conceptual Database Design
 Conceptual design revolves around discovering and
analyzing organizational and user data requirements
 The important activities are to identify
 Entities
 Attributes
 Relationships
 Constraints
 Entity-Relationship Diagram (ERD) is developed based
on these components
 Conceptual Data Model produces
 ER diagrams, and
 Description of the Diagram

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Developing an E-R Diagram
 Designing conceptual model
 Identify the entities, attributes, relationships, and constraints
 Analysis of requirements gathered
 Nouns --- prospective entities
 Adjectives --- prospective attributes
 Verbs/verb phrases --- prospective relationships
 Commanding Words --- prospective constraints

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Developing an E-R Diagram (cont.)
 Developing an E-R Model involves identifying the
 Entities
 Attributes
 Relationships between entities
 The E-R Model needs to be validated against the
requirement of the user
 The E-R diagram is presented for review
 Feedback is collected from users
 The process is repeated until the end users and designers agree

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The ER Model
 Components of the ER Model
 Entity
 Relationship
 Attributes
 The ER diagram is used to represent database schema
 Example

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ER Diagram
 In ER diagram:
 A rectangle represents an entity set.
 An ellipse represents an attribute.
 A diamond represents a relationship.
 Lines represent linking of attributes to entity sets and of entity
sets to relationship sets.

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Entity
 Entity (Entity Type)
 A GROUP of objects with same properties identified by as
having an independent existence
 Entity type or entity set is a collection of similar entities
 Some examples of entity types are:
 All students in HiLCoE, say STUDENT.
 All courses in HiLCoE, say COURSE
 Entity occurrence (instance)
 Uniquely identifiable object of an entity type.

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Entity (cont.)
 There are different types of Entities
 It can be an object with a physical existence
 It can be an object with a conceptual existence

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Attribute
 An entity is described by its properties
 These are the ATTRIBUTES of the entity
 Entities are described in a database by a set of attributes
 Example of attributes:
 Attributes of CELLPHONE
 Brand, Cost, and Weight
 Attributes of STUDENT
 Roll number, name, and grade
 Attributes of EMPLOYEE
 Employee’s name, Date of Birth, address, salary, and job

address
Date of
Employee Birth
Name

job salary
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Relationship
 A relationship is an association between entity types
 The examples of relationship are:
 Teaches is the relationship between LECTURER and STUDENT
 Treatment is the relationship between DOCTOR and PATIENT

 ER Diagram

DOCTOR Treatment PATIENT

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Relationship (cont.)
 Example
 Employee WORKs FOR Department

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ER Diagram - Example
 STUDENT and CLASS are entities
 Roll number and the Name are attributes of STUDENT
 Subject Name and Hall Number are attributes of
CLASS
 Attends is a relationship between entities STUDENT
and CLASS

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Attributes
 An Attribute is a property of an entity or a relationship
 The Domain of an Attribute is the set of allowable values
for one or more attributes.
 Attribute ( Structure based classification )
 Simple Attribute
 Composite Attribute
 Attribute (Value based classification)
 Single Value
 Multivalued Attribute
 Derived Attribute

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Attributes (Value based classification)
 Single-valued Attribute
 Attribute that holds a single value for each occurrence of an
entity type.
 Multi-valued Attribute
 Attribute that holds multiple values for each occurrence of an
entity type.
 Represented by double line ellipse in Traditional E-R
 Derived Attribute
 Attribute that represents a value that is derivable from value of a
related attribute, or set of attributes, not necessarily in the same
entity type.
 Represented by a dotted line ellipse in Traditional E-R

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Single-valued Attribute
 Examples
 age of a person
 Roll number of the student,
 Registration number of a car, etc
 Representation of Single Value Attribute in ER Diagram

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Multivalued Attribute
 More than one value will be associated with a multivalue
attribute.
 The skills associated to an employee are a multivalue
attribute.

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Derived Attribute
 The value of the derived attribute can be derived from
the values of other related attributes or entities.
 Example: The Age of a person can be derived from the
date of birth of the person
 Experience of an employee in an organization can be
derived from date of joining of the employee

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Attributes(Structure based classification)
 Simple Attribute
 Attribute composed of a single component with an independent
existence.
 Represented by an Ellipse in traditional E-R model
 Composite Attribute
 Attribute composed of multiple components, each with an
independent existence.
 Indicated by extension ellipses of an attribute ellipse

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Composite Attribute
 Composite attribute is one which can be further
subdivided into simple attributes.
 Example: Consider the attribute “address” which can be
further subdivided into Street name, City, and State.

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