SEN235 Introduction to Database Systems

(Fall 2022)
Database Design Using E-R Model
Asst.Prof.Dr. Hasan ÇİFCİ
 Agenda

▪ Overview of the Design Process

▪ The Entity-Relationship (E-R) Model
▪ Complex Attributes
▪ Mapping Cardinalities
▪ Primary Key
▪ Removing Redundant Attributes in Entity Sets
▪ Reducing ER Diagrams to Relational Schemas
▪ Extended E-R Features
▪ Entity-Relationship Design Issues
▪ Alternative Notations for Modeling Data
▪ Other Aspects of Database Design
▪ Extended E-R Features
▪ Entity-Relationship Design Issues
▪ Alternative Notations for Modeling Data
▪ Other Aspects of Database Design

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 Design Phases
• Initial phase -- characterize fully the data needs of the prospective database users.
• Second phase -- choosing a data model
– Applying the concepts of the chosen data model
– Translating these requirements into a conceptual schema of the database.
– A fully developed conceptual schema indicates the functional requirements of
the enterprise.
• Describe the kinds of operations (or transactions) that will be performed
on the data.
▪ Final Phase -- Moving from an abstract data model to the implementation of the
database
– Logical Design – Deciding on the database schema.
• Database design requires that we find a “good” collection of relation
schemas.
▪ Business decision – What attributes should we record in the database?
▪ Computer science decision – What relation schemas should we have and
how should the attributes be distributed among the various relation
schemas?
– Physical Design – Deciding on the physical layout of the database
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 Design Alternatives

▪ In designing a database schema, we must ensure that we avoid

two major pitfalls:
• Redundancy: A bad design may result in repeat information.
▪ Redundant representation of information may lead to data
inconsistency among the various copies of information
• Incompleteness: a bad design may make certain aspects of the
enterprise difficult or impossible to model.
▪ Avoiding bad designs is not enough. There may be a large
number of good designs from which we must choose.

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 Design Approaches

▪ Entity Relationship (E-R) Model

• Models an enterprise as a collection of entities and relationships
▪ Entity: a “thing” or “object” in the enterprise that is
distinguishable from other objects
• Described by a set of attributes
▪ Relationship: an association among several entities
• Represented diagrammatically by an entity-relationship diagram:
▪ Normalization Theory
• Formalize what designs are bad, and test for them

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Outline of the ER Model

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 ER Model - Database Modeling

• The ER data model was developed to facilitate database design by

allowing specification of an enterprise schema that represents the
overall logical structure of a database.
• The ER data model employs three basic concepts:
– Entity sets,
– Relationship sets,
– Attributes.
• The ER model also has an associated diagrammatic representation,
the ER diagram, which can express the overall logical structure of a
database graphically.

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 Entity Sets

• An entity is an object that exists and is distinguishable from other

objects.
– Example: specific person, company, event, plant, school, job
• An entity set is a set of entities of the same type that share the same
properties.
– Example: set of all persons, companies, trees, holidays
• An entity is represented by a set of attributes; i.e., descriptive
properties possessed by all members of an entity set.
– Example:
instructor = (ID, name, salary )
course = (course_id, title, credits)
• A subset of the attributes form a primary key of the entity set; i.e.,
uniquely identifying each member of the set.

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Entity Sets - instructor and student

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 Representing Entity Sets in ER Diagram

▪ Entity sets can be represented graphically as follows:

• Rectangles represent entity sets.
• Attributes listed inside entity rectangle
• Underline indicates primary key attributes

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 Relationship Sets

• A relationship is an association among several entities

Example:
44553 (Peltier) advisor 22222 (Einstein)
student entity relationship set instructor entity
• A relationship set is a mathematical relation among n  2 entities,
each taken from entity sets
{(e1, e2, … en) | e1  E1, e2  E2, …, en  En}

where (e1, e2, …, en) is a relationship

– Example:
(44553,22222)  advisor

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 Relationship Sets

▪ Example: we define the relationship set advisor to denote the

associations between students and the instructors who act as
their advisors.
▪ Pictorially, we draw a line between related entities.

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 Representing Relationship Sets via ER
Diagrams

▪ Diamonds represent relationship sets.

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 Relationship Sets

• An attribute can also be associated with a relationship set.

• For instance, the advisor relationship set between entity sets
instructor and student may have the attribute date which tracks when
the student started being associated with the advisor

76766 Crick 98988 Tanaka

45565 Katz 3 May 2008 12345 Shankar
10 June 2007
10101 Srinivasan 00128 Zhang
12 June 2006

98345 Kim 6 June 2009 76543 Brown

76543 Singh 30 June 2007
76653 Aoi
31 May 2007
22222 Einstein 23121 Chavez
4 May 2006

instructor 44553 Peltier

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Relationship Sets with Attributes

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 Roles

• Entity sets of a relationship need not be distinct

– Each occurrence of an entity set plays a “role” in the
relationship
• The labels “course_id” and “prereq_id” are called roles. They
represent relations to the same entity but with different roles.

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 Degree of a Relationship Set

• Binary relationship
– involve two entity sets (or degree two).
– most relationship sets in a database system are binary.
• Relationships between more than two entity sets are rare. Most
relationships are binary.

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 Non-binary Relationship Sets

• There are occasions when it is more convenient to represent

relationships as non-binary.
• E-R Diagram with a Ternary Relationship

• Students work on research projects under the guidance of an instructor.

• relationship proj_guide is a ternary relationship between instructor, student, and
project
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 Complex Attributes

• Attribute types:
– Simple and composite attributes.
– Single-valued and multivalued attributes
• Example: multivalued attribute: phone_numbers
– Derived attributes
• Can be computed from other attributes
• Example: age is derived from date_of_birth
• Domain – the set of permitted values for each attribute

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 Composite Attributes

• Composite attributes allow us to divided attributes into subparts

(other attributes).

composite name address

attributes

first_name middle_initial last_name street city state postal_code

component
attributes
street_number street_name apartment_number

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Representing Complex Attributes in ER Diagram

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 Mapping Cardinality Constraints

• Express the number of entities to which another entity can be

associated via a relationship set.
• Most useful in describing binary relationship sets.
• For a binary relationship set the mapping cardinality must be one of
the following types:
– One to one
– One to many
– Many to one
– Many to many

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 Mapping Cardinalities

One to one One to many

Note: Some elements in A and B may not be mapped to any elements

in the other set

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 Mapping Cardinalities

Many to one Many to many

Note: Some elements in A and B may not be mapped to any

elements in the other set

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 Representing Cardinality Constraints in
ER Diagram
• We express cardinality constraints by drawing either a directed line
(→), signifying “one,” or an undirected line (—), signifying “many,”
between the relationship set and the entity set.
• One-to-one relationship between an instructor and a student:
– A student is associated with at most one instructor via the
relationship advisor
– An instructor is associated with at most one student via advisor

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 One-to-Many Relationship

• one-to-many relationship between an instructor and a student

– an instructor is associated with several (including 0) students
via advisor
– a student is associated with at most one instructor via advisor

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 Many-to-One Relationships

• In a many-to-one relationship between an instructor and a student,

– an instructor is associated with at most one student via
advisor,
– and a student is associated with several (including 0)
instructors via advisor

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 Many-to-Many Relationship

• An instructor is associated with several (possibly 0) students via

advisor
• A student is associated with several (possibly 0) instructors via
advisor

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 Total and Partial Participation

▪ Total participation (indicated by double line): Every entity in the

entity set participates in at least one relationship in the
relationship set

participation of student in advisor relation is total

▪ every student must have an associated instructor
▪ Partial participation: some entities may not participate in any
relationship in the relationship set
• Example: participation of instructor in advisor is partial

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 Notation for Expressing More Complex
Constraints
▪ A line may have an associated minimum and maximum cardinality,
shown in the form l..h, where l is the minimum and h the maximum
cardinality
• A minimum value of 1 indicates total participation.
• A maximum value of 1 indicates that the entity participates in at
most one relationship
• A maximum value of * indicates no limit.
▪ Example

• Instructor can advise 0 or more students. A student must have 1

advisor; cannot have multiple advisors.
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 Cardinality Constraints on Ternary
Relationship
• We allow at most one arrow out of a ternary (or greater degree)
relationship to indicate a cardinality constraint
– For example, an arrow from proj_guide to instructor indicates each
student has at most one guide for a project

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 Cardinality Constraints on Ternary
Relationship
• If there is more than one arrow, there are two ways of defining the
meaning.
– For example, a ternary relationship R between A, B and C with arrows to
B and C could mean
1. Each A entity is associated with a unique entity from B and C or
2. Each pair of entities from (A, B) is associated with a unique C entity,
and each pair (A, C) is associated with a unique B
– Each alternative has been used in different formalisms
– To avoid confusion, we outlaw more than one arrow

A R B

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 Primary Key

• Primary keys provide a way to specify how entities and relations

are distinguished.
• We will consider:
– Entity sets
– Relationship sets
– Weak entity sets

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 Primary Key for Entity Sets

• By definition, individual entities are distinct.

• From database perspective, the differences among them must be
expressed in terms of their attributes.
• The values of the attribute values of an entity must be such that they
can uniquely identify the entity.
– No two entities in an entity set are allowed to have exactly the
same value for all attributes.
• A key for an entity is a set of attributes that suffice to distinguish
entities from each other

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 Primary Key for Relationship Sets

• To distinguish among the various relationships of a relationship

set we use the individual primary keys of the entities in the
relationship set.
– Let R be a relationship set involving entity sets E1, E2, .. En
– The primary key for R consists of the union of the primary keys
of entity sets E1, E2, ..En
– If the relationship set R has attributes a1, a2, .., am associated
with it, then the primary key of R also includes the attributes
a1, a2, .., am
• Example: relationship set “advisor”.
– The primary key consists of instructor.ID and student.ID
• The choice of the primary key for a relationship set depends on
the mapping cardinality of the relationship set.

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 Choice of Primary Key for Binary Relationship

• Many-to-Many relationships. The preceding union of the primary

keys is a minimal superkey and is chosen as the primary key.
• One-to-Many relationships. The primary key of the “Many” side is a
minimal superkey and is used as the primary key.
• Many-to-one relationships. The primary key of the “Many” side is a
minimal superkey and is used as the primary key.
• One-to-one relationships. The primary key of either one of the
participating entity sets forms a minimal superkey, and either one
can be chosen as the primary key.

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 Weak Entity Sets

• An entity set that does not have a primary key is referred to as a weak
entity set.
• The existence of a weak entity set depends on the existence of a
identifying entity set.
– It must relate to the identifying entity set via a total; one-to-many
relationship set from the identifying to the weak entity set
– Identifying relationship depicted using a double diamond
• The discriminator (or partial key)of a weak entity set is the set of
attributes that distinguishes among all the entities of a weak entity
set.
• The primary key of a weak entity set is formed by the primary key of
the strong entity set on which the weak entity set is existence
dependent, plus the weak entity set’s discriminator.

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 Weak Entity Sets

• Consider a section entity, which is uniquely identified by a course_id,

semester, year, and sec_id.
• Clearly, section entities are related to course entities. Suppose we
create a relationship set sec_course between entity sets section and
course.
• Note that the information in sec_course is redundant, since section
already has an attribute course_id, which identifies the course with
which the section is related.
• One option to deal with this redundancy is to get rid of the
relationship sec_course; however, by doing so the relationship
between section and course becomes implicit in an attribute, which is
not desirable.

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 Weak Entity Sets

• An alternative way to deal with this redundancy is to not store the

attribute course_id in the section entity and to only store the
remaining attributes section_id, year, and semester.
– However, the entity set section then does not have enough
attributes to identify a particular section entity uniquely
• To deal with this problem, we treat the relationship sec_course as a
special relationship that provides extra information, in this case, the
course_id, required to identify section entities uniquely.
• A weak entity set is one whose existence is dependent on another
entity, called its identifying entity.
• Instead of associating a primary key with a weak entity, we use the
identifying entity, along with extra attributes called discriminator to
uniquely identify a weak entity.

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 Weak Entity Sets

• An entity set that is not a weak entity set is termed a strong entity set.
• Every weak entity must be associated with an identifying entity; that
is, the weak entity set is said to be existence dependent on the
identifying entity set.
• The identifying entity set is said to own the weak entity set that it
identifies.
• The relationship associating the weak entity set with the identifying
entity set is called the identifying relationship.
• Note that the relational schema we eventually create from the entity
set section does have the attribute course_id, for reasons that will
become clear later, even though we have dropped the attribute
course_id from the entity set section.

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 Expressing Weak Entity Sets

• In E-R diagrams, a weak entity set is depicted via a double

rectangle.
• We underline the discriminator of a weak entity set with a dashed
line.
• The relationship set connecting the weak entity set to the
identifying strong entity set is depicted by a double diamond.
• Primary key for section: (course_id, sec_id, semester, year)

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 Expressing Weak Entity Sets

• One more example:

– We depict a weak entity set by double rectangles.
– We underline the discriminator of a weak entity set with a
dashed line.
– payment-number: discriminator of the payment entity set
– Primary key for payment: (loan-number, payment-number)

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 Redundant Attributes
• Suppose we have entity sets:
– student, with attributes: ID, name, tot_cred, dept_name
– department, with attributes: dept_name, building, budget
• We model the fact that each student has an associated department using a
relationship set stud_dept
• The attribute dept_name in student below replicates information present in
the relationship and is therefore redundant
– and needs to be removed.
• BUT: when converting back to tables, in some cases the attribute gets
reintroduced, as we will see later.

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E-R Diagram for a University Enterprise

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Reduction to Relation Schemas

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 Reduction to Relation Schemas

• Entity sets and relationship sets can be expressed uniformly as

relation schemas that represent the contents of the database.
• A database which conforms to an E-R diagram can be represented
by a collection of schemas.
• For each entity set and relationship set there is a unique schema
that is assigned the name of the corresponding entity set or
relationship set.
• Each schema has a number of columns (generally corresponding to
attributes), which have unique names.

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 Representing Entity Sets

• A strong entity set reduces to a schema with the same attributes

student (ID, name, tot_cred)
• A weak entity set becomes a table that includes a column for the
primary key of the identifying strong entity set
section (course_id, sec_id, sem, year)
• Example
Comes from “course”
entity

Section
Student
sec_id
ID
takes sem
name year
tot_cred

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Representation of Entity Sets with
Composite Attributes
▪ Composite attributes are flattened out by creating a
separate attribute for each component attribute
• Example: given entity set instructor with
composite attribute name with component
attributes first_name and last_name the schema
corresponding to the entity set has two attributes
name_first_name and name_last_name
▪ Prefix omitted if there is no ambiguity
(name_first_name could be first_name)
▪ Ignoring multivalued attributes, extended instructor
schema is
• instructor(ID,
first_name, middle_initial, last_name,
street_number, street_name,
apt_number, city, state, zip, date_of_birth)

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 Representation of Entity Sets with
Multivalued Attributes
▪ A multivalued attribute M of an entity E is represented by a separate
schema EM
▪ Schema EM has attributes corresponding to the primary key of E and
an attribute corresponding to multivalued attribute M
▪ Example: Multivalued attribute phone_number of instructor is
represented by a schema:
inst_phone= (ID, phone_number)
▪ Each value of the multivalued attribute maps to a separate tuple of
the relation on schema EM
• For example, an instructor entity with primary key 22222 and
phone numbers 456-7890 and 123-4567 maps to two tuples:
(22222, 456-7890) and (22222, 123-4567)

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 Representing Relationship Sets

• A many-to-many relationship set is represented as a schema with

attributes for the primary keys of the two participating entity sets,
and any descriptive attributes of the relationship set.
• Example: schema for relationship set advisor

advisor = (s_id, i_id)

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 Redundancy of Schemas
▪ Many-to-one and one-to-many relationship sets that are total on the many-
side can be represented by adding an extra attribute to the “many” side,
containing the primary key of the “one” side
▪ Example: Instead of creating a schema for relationship set inst_dept, add
an attribute dept_name to the schema arising from entity set instructor
▪ Example

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 Redundancy of Schemas
▪ For one-to-one relationship sets, either side can be chosen to act as the
“many” side
• That is, an extra attribute can be added to either of the tables
corresponding to the two entity sets
▪ If participation is partial on the “many” side, replacing a schema by an extra
attribute in the schema corresponding to the “many” side could result in null
values
▪ The schema corresponding to a relationship set linking a weak entity set to
its identifying strong entity set is redundant.
▪ Example: The section schema already contains the attributes that would
appear in the sec_course schema

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Extended E-R Features

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 Specialization

• Top-down design process; we designate sub-groupings within an

entity set that are distinctive from other entities in the set.
• These sub-groupings become lower-level entity sets that have
attributes or participate in relationships that do not apply to the
higher-level entity set.
• Depicted by a triangle component labeled ISA (e.g., instructor “is a”
person).
• Attribute inheritance – a lower-level entity set inherits all the
attributes and relationship participation of the higher-level entity set
to which it is linked.

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 Specialization Example
• In an incomplete specialization, also called
a partial specialization, only some
individuals of the parent class are
specialized (that is, have unique
attributes). Other individuals of the parent
class have only the common attributes.
• In a complete specialization, all individuals
of the parent class have one or more
unique attributes that are not common to
the generalized (parent) class.
• In an overlapping specialization, an
individual of the parent class may be a
member of more than one of the
specialized subclasses.
• In a disjoint specialization, also called an
exclusive specialization, an individual of
the parent class may be a member of only
one specialized subclass.
Overlapping – employee and student
Disjoint – instructor and secretary
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 Representing Specialization via Schemas

▪ Method 1:
• Form a schema for the higher-level entity
• Form a schema for each lower-level entity set, include primary
key of higher-level entity set and local attributes

• Drawback: getting information about, an employee requires

accessing two relations, the one corresponding to the low-
level schema and the one corresponding to the high-level
schema

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 Representing Specialization as Schemas

▪ Method 2:
• Form a schema for each entity set with all local and inherited
attributes

• Drawback: name, street and city may be stored redundantly for

people who are both students and employees

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 Generalization

• A bottom-up design process – combine a number of entity sets that

share the same features into a higher-level entity set.
• Specialization and generalization are simple inversions of each
other; they are represented in an E-R diagram in the same way.
• The terms specialization and generalization are used
interchangeably.

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 Completeness Constraint

• Completeness constraint -- specifies whether or not an entity in the

higher-level entity set must belong to at least one of the lower-level
entity sets within a generalization.
– total: an entity must belong to one of the lower-level entity sets
– partial: an entity need not belong to one of the lower-level entity
sets

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 Completeness Constraint

• Partial generalization is the default.

• The student generalization is total.
– All student entities must be either graduate or undergraduate.
Because the higher-level entity set arrived at through
generalization is generally composed of only those entities in
the lower-level entity sets, the completeness constraint for a
generalized higher-level entity set is usually total.

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 Aggregation
▪ Aggregation is an abstraction through which we can represent
relationships as higher level entity sets.
▪ Consider the ternary relationship proj_guide, which we saw earlier
▪ Suppose we want to record evaluations of a student by a guide on
a project

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 Aggregation

• Relationship sets eval_for and proj_guide represent overlapping

information
– Every eval_for relationship corresponds to a proj_guide
relationship
– However, some proj_guide relationships may not correspond to
any eval_for relationships
• So, we can’t discard the proj_guide relationship
• Eliminate this redundancy via aggregation
– Treat relationship as an abstract entity
– Allows relationships between relationships
– Abstraction of relationship into new entity

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 Aggregation
▪ Eliminate this redundancy via aggregation without introducing redundancy,
the following diagram represents:
• A student is guided by a particular instructor on a particular project
• A student, instructor, project combination may have an associated
evaluation

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Aggregation - Another Example

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 Reduction to Relational Schemas

▪ To represent aggregation, create a schema containing

• Primary key of the aggregated relationship,
• The primary key of the associated entity set
• Any descriptive attributes
▪ In our example:
• The schema eval_for is:
eval_for (s_ID, project_id, i_ID, evaluation_id)
• The schema proj_guide is redundant.

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Design Issues

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 Common Mistakes in E-R Diagrams
▪ Example of erroneous E-R diagrams

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Common Mistakes in E-R Diagrams

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 Entities vs. Attributes

▪ Use of entity sets vs. attributes

▪ Use of phone as an entity allows extra information about phone

numbers (plus multiple phone numbers)

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 Entities vs. Relationship Sets
▪ Use of entity sets vs. relationship sets
Possible guideline is to designate a relationship set to describe
an action that occurs between entities

Figure: Replacement of takes by registration and two relationship sets

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 Binary vs. Non-Binary Relationships

• Although it is possible to replace any non-binary (n-ary, for n > 2)

relationship set by a number of distinct binary relationship sets, a n-
ary relationship set shows more clearly that several entities
participate in a single relationship.
• Some relationships that appear to be non-binary may be better
represented using binary relationships
– For example, a ternary relationship parents, relating a child to
his/her father and mother, is best replaced by two binary
relationships, father and mother
• Using two binary relationships allows partial information
(e.g., only mother being known)
– But there are some relationships that are naturally non-binary
• Example: proj_guide

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 Converting Non-Binary Relationships to
Binary Form
• In general, any non-binary relationship can be represented using binary
relationships by creating an artificial entity set.
– Replace R between entity sets A, B and C by an entity set E, and three
relationship sets:
1. RA, relating E and A 2. RB, relating E and B
3. RC, relating E and C
– Create an identifying attribute for E and add any attributes of R to E
– For each relationship (ai , bi , ci) in R, create
1. a new entity ei in the entity set E 2. add (ei , ai ) to RA
3. add (ei , bi ) to RB 4. add (ei , ci ) to RC

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 Converting Non-Binary Relationships

• Also need to translate constraints

– Translating all constraints may not be possible
– There may be instances in the translated schema that
cannot correspond to any instance of R
– We can avoid creating an identifying attribute by making E a
weak entity set (described shortly) identified by the three
relationship sets.

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 E-R Design Decisions

• The use of an attribute or entity set to represent an object.

• Whether a real-world concept is best expressed by an entity set or a
relationship set.
• The use of a ternary relationship versus a pair of binary
relationships.
• The use of a strong or weak entity set.
• The use of specialization/generalization – contributes to modularity
in the design.
• The use of aggregation – can treat the aggregate entity set as a
single unit without concern for the details of its internal structure.

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Summary of Symbols Used in E-R
Notation

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Symbols Used in E-R Notation

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 Alternative ER Notations

• Chen, IDE1FX, …

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Alternative ER Notations

Chen IDE1FX (Crows feet notation)

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 Unified Modeling Language (UML)

• UML: Unified Modeling Language

• UML has many components to graphically model different
aspects of an entire software system
• UML Class Diagrams correspond to E-R Diagram, but several
differences.

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 ER vs. UML Class Diagrams

* Note reversal of position in cardinality constraint depiction

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 ER vs. UML Class Diagrams
ER Diagram Notation Equivalent in UML

* Generalization can use merged or separate arrows independent

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 UML Class Diagrams

• Binary relationship sets are represented in UML by just drawing a

line connecting the entity sets. The relationship set name is written
adjacent to the line.
• The role played by an entity set in a relationship set may also be
specified by writing the role name on the line, adjacent to the entity
set.
• The relationship set name may alternatively be written in a box,
along with attributes of the relationship set, and the box is
connected, using a dotted line, to the line depicting the
relationship set.

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ER vs. UML Class Diagrams

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 Other Aspects of Database Design

• Functional Requirements: All enterprises have rules on what kinds

of functionality are to be supported by an enterprise application.
These could include transactions that update the data, as well as
queries to view data in a desired fashion. In addition to planning the
functionality, designers have to plan the interfaces to be built to
support the functionality.
• Data Flow, Workflow: The term workflow refers to the combination of
data and tasks involved in processes like those of the preceding
examples. Workflows interact with the database system as they
move among users and users perform their tasks on the workflow.
• Schema Evolution: Database design is usually not a one-time
activity. The needs of an organization evolve continually, and the
data that it needs to store also evolve correspondingly. During the
initial database-design phases, or during the development of an
application, the database designer may realize that changes are
required at the conceptual, logical, or physical schema levels.
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 Exercises (1)

▪ Construct an E-R diagram for a car insurance company whose

customers own one or more cars each.
▪ Each car has associated with it zero to any number of recorded
accidents.
▪ Each insurance policy covers one or more cars and has one or
more premium payments associated with it.
▪ Each payment is for a particular period of time, and has an
associated due date, and the date when the payment was received.

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Exercises (1)

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 Exercises (2)

▪ Consider a database that includes the entity sets student, course,

and section from the university schema and that additionally
records the marks that students receive in different exams of
different sections.
▪ a. Construct an E-R diagram that models exams as entities and
uses a ternary relationship as part of the design.
▪ b. Construct an alternative E-R diagram that uses only a binary
relationship between student and section. Make sure that only
one relationship exists between a particular student and
section pair, yet you can represent the marks that a student
gets in different exams.

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 Exercises (2.a)
Answer for “a”

88/90
 Exercises (2.b)
Answer for “b”

89/90
Thank you…
Hasan ÇİFCİ