Database Design

Immanuel Trummer

[email protected]

www.itrummer.org
Database Design Process
• Requirement analysis

• Based on use cases, business process descriptions

• Conceptual design

• Model what the DB is about, e.g. via ER diagrams

• Schema normalization

• E.g., reduce data redundancy via transformation

• Physical tuning

• E.g., decide which indices to create or sort order

Slides by Immanuel Trummer, Cornell University

Database Design Process
• Requirement analysis

• Based on use cases, business process descriptions

• Conceptual design

• Model what the DB is about, e.g. via ER diagrams

• Schema normalization

• E.g., reduce data redundancy via transformation

• Physical tuning

• E.g., decide which indices to create or sort order

Slides by Immanuel Trummer, Cornell University

Database Design Process
• Requirement analysis

• Based on use cases, business process descriptions

• Conceptual design

• Model what the DB is about, e.g. via ER diagrams

• Schema normalization

• E.g., reduce data redundancy via transformation

• Physical tuning

• E.g., decide which indices to create or sort order

Slides by Immanuel Trummer, Cornell University

 Entities and Attributes
• Entity set: multiple entities of same type

• Represented as rectangle in ER diagram

• Attribute: a property connected to an entity set

• Represented as oval in ER diagram

• Connected via lines to associated entity

• Underlined if (part of) a key attribute

• Attributes have simple values (e.g., integer)

Slides by Immanuel Trummer, Cornell University

Example Entity Set

Name

NetID GPA

Student

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 Relationships

• A relationship connects entities

• Relationships are represented as diamonds

• Connecting lines indicate targeted entities

• May connect two or more entities

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 Binary Relationship
Examples
Lecturer Lecturer

Teaches Teaches

Course Room

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Ternary Relationship
Example
Lecturer

Teaches

Course Room

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What is the
Difference?

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Classifying Relationships

• Can constrain number of relationships per entity

• Participation constraint: entity must relate at least once

• Represented by a thick line (entity to relationship)

• At-most-one constraint: entity relates at most once

• Represented by arrow (from entity to relationship)

Slides by Immanuel Trummer, Cornell University

 Binary Relationship
Examples
Lecturer Student

Teaches Favorite

Course Course

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 Binary Relationship
Examples
Lecturer Student

Semantics?
Teaches Favorite

Course Course

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More Relationship Features

• Can associate relationships with attributes

• Same representation as for entity attributes

• Refers to related entity combinations

• Can assign entities to roles

• Represent role as label for connecting edge

• Required when connecting entities of same type

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More Features Examples
Employee

Supervisor Supervised

Supervises

Start_Time

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 Sub-Classes
• You most likely know concept from OO languages

• Sub-classing allows to reduce redundancy in diagram

• Sub-classes inherit the attributes from parent

• Sub-classes inherit relationships from parent

• Represent sub-classes via triangles ("Is-A")

• No multiple inheritance (sub-classes form tree)

Slides by Immanuel Trummer, Cornell University

 Sub-Classes Example
NetID Employee Name

Supervised
Supervisor
Is-
A
Supervises

Instructor NrCourses

Teaches

Course
Slides by Immanuel Trummer, Cornell University
 Weak Entities

• Weak entity can only be uniquely identified by considering

the primary key of another ("owner") entity

• Weak entity connects to owner via identifying relationship

• Weak entity must participate in identifying relationship

• Also, each weak entity can appear at most once in it

Slides by Immanuel Trummer, Cornell University

Weak Entity Example
HW_Nr

Homework

Belongs-
To
Course

Course_ID
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 Aggregation

• Models relationship of a relationship

• Surround relationship with dashed rectangle

• Now connect dashed rectangle with other items

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 Aggregation Example
EmployeeID Employee Name

Monitors Until

Since Department DepID

Sponsors

Project
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Why Not Use Ternary
Relationship ... ?

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 Design Choices: 

Entities vs. Attributes
• Often can choose between entities and attributes

• E.g., model address as attribute or connected entity?

• Use entity if employees can have multiple addresses

• Attribute values cannot be set valued

• Model as entity if we want to structure address further

• Can model components as attributes

Slides by Immanuel Trummer, Cornell University

Subtleties of ER Diagrams
Employee

From

WorksFor

To

Department
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Subtleties of ER Diagrams
Employee

From
h i s . . . ?
W it h T
Wron g WorksFor

W ha t'
Tos

Department
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Better Representation
Employee

From

WorksFor TimePeriod

To

Department

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Subtleties of ER diagrams II
Manager

Budget Manages

Project

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Subtleties of ER diagrams II
Manager

h i s . . . ?
Budget
W
Manages
it h T
Wron g
W ha t' s
Project

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 Better Representation
Employee

Budget Is-
A

Manager Manages Project

Slides by Immanuel Trummer, Cornell University

 Exercise

• Draw an ER diagram describing the following situation

• Customers have an ID (unique) and a name

• Each order is associated with exactly one customer

• An order consists of at least one item

• Items have an ID (unique), a name, and a price

Slides by Immanuel Trummer, Cornell University

 Solution
ID Name

Customer

Order Issues

PartOf Item

Number ID Name Price

Slides by Immanuel Trummer, Cornell University
ER diagrams as Relations

• Need to translate ER diagrams to relations

• Introduce relations for entity types

• Each entity becomes row in relation

• Properties are represented as columns

• Underlined attributes part of primary key

Slides by Immanuel Trummer, Cornell University

Translating Relationships

• Generic method: introduce relation capturing relationships

• Columns store primary keys of all connected entities

• Row represents relationship between specific entities

• Primary key combines primary keys of entities

• Additional attributes become columns as well

Slides by Immanuel Trummer, Cornell University

 Example

NetID Student Sname

Since Favorite

CourseID Course Cname

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 Example

NetID Student Sname

Student(NetID, Sname)

Favorite(NetID, 

Since Favorite
CourseID, Since)

Course(CourseID, Cname)

CourseID Course Cname

Slides by Immanuel Trummer, Cornell University
Translating Sub-Classes

• Entities of sub-class may have additional attributes

• Can be represented in multiple different ways

• Separate relations for superclass and sub-class

• Introduce multiple relations linking key to attributes

• Use relation for sub-class, set unused attributes to null

Slides by Immanuel Trummer, Cornell University

Sub-Classing Example

EmpID Employee JobTitle

Budget Is-
A

Manager

Employee(EmpID, JobTitle)
Manager(EmpID, JobTitle, Budget)
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Sub-Classing Example

EmpID Employee JobTitle

Budget Is-
A

Manager

JobTitles(EmpID, JobTitle)
Budgets(EmpID, Budget)
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 Sub-Classing Example

EmpID Employee JobTitle

Budget Is-
A

Manager

EmployeeOrManager(EmpID, JobTitle, Budget)

Slides by Immanuel Trummer, Cornell University
Translating Weak Entities

• Introduce new relation for storing weak entities

• Add foreign key columns referencing owner entity

• In SQL: cascading delete depending on owner

Slides by Immanuel Trummer, Cornell University

Weak Entities Example
HW_Nr

Homework GradeMean

Belongs-
To
Course Course_ID

Homeworks(HwNr, CourseID, GradeMean)

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 Weak Entities Example
HW_Nr

Homework GradeMean

Belongs-
To
Course Course_ID

Create table Homeworks(HwNr int, courseID int, gradeMean numeric,

primary key(HwNr, courseID), 

foreign key (courseID) references courses on delete cascade)
Slides by Immanuel Trummer, Cornell University
ER diagrams in Practice

• Lots of tools available for drawing ER diagrams

• https://dbmstools.com/categories/database-diagram-
tools/postgresql

• Many of them export automatically SQL statements

• Precise visualization may differ, concepts are similar

Slides by Immanuel Trummer, Cornell University

MusicBrainz Database: Simplified Schema