CP 121:Introduction to

Database Systems
Lecture 3: Data Models

Madam, Muro
 Data Models

 Database designers and end-users need to

communicate unambiguously and accurately by
understanding the organizational data
 They need a high level description of the data, that is
Data model
 Data model?
• A collection of concepts that can be
used to describe and manipulating data,
relationships between data, and the
constraints on the data in an
organization
• A model is a representation of real-
world objects and events and their
associations
 TYPES OF DATA MODELS

1. The Entity-Relationship Model

2. Relational Model
3. The Object-Relational Data Model
4. Hierarchical Model
5. The Network Data Model
 The Entity-Relationship Model

• Different techniques can be used to gather and

capture information about what the users require of
a database system.
• Once the requirements collection and analysis stage
of the database system development lifecycle is
complete and we have documented the requirements
for the database system, we are ready to begin the
database design stage.
 The Entity-Relationship Model

• One of the most difficult aspects of database design

is the fact that designers, programmers, and end-
users tend to view data and its use in different ways.
• we need a model for communication that is
nontechnical and free of ambiguities. The Entity–
Relationship (ER) model is one such example
 Entity-Relationship (ER)
Modeling.
 Entity Relationship (ER) Diagram–A detailed,
logical representation of the entities, associations
and data elements for an organization or
business
•Notation uses three main constructs
-Data entities
–Relationships
–Attributes
 ERD CONTINUE…..

• The entity-relationship model allows

us to describe the data involved in a
real-world enterprise in terms of
objects and their relationships and is
widely used in develop an initial
database design.
 ERD
• The ER model describes data as entities, relationships and
attributes.
• An entity is an object in the real world that is
distinguishable from other objects.
• e.g., person, company, event, plant etc
• Entity Sets : An entity set is a set of entities of the same
type that share the same properties or attributes.
• e.g., The set of all persons, companies, trees, holidays
etc.
 ERD

• In ER, an entity is represented as a rectangle with the

name.
 Types of Entities

 Strong Entity
 These shapes are independent from other entities,
and are often called parent entities, since they will
often have weak entities that depend on them.
 They will also have a primary key, distinguishing each
occurrence of the entity.
 Types of Entities

 Weak Entity
 Weak entities depend on some other entity type.
 They don't have primary keys, and have no meaning
in the diagram without their parent entity.
 ERD CONTINUE…

• An attribute is the property of an entity.

• E.g. an employee entity may be described by employee’s
name, age, address, salary etc.
• In ER model attribute is represented as an Oval.
 ERD CONTINUE…

• Key Attributes : An entity type usually has an

attribute whose values are distinct for each individual
entity in the collection. Such an attribute is called a
key attribute and its values can be used to identify
each entity uniquely.
 TYPES OF ATTRIBUTES
1. composite vs. simple attributes
• Simple attributes are attributes that can‟t be
divided into sub-parts. E.g salary.
• Composite attributes can be divided into smaller
subparts, which represents more attributes. E.g name
can be subdivided into first name, middle name and last name.
• Date of Birth is another example of composite attribute,
because it may be divided into “Birth day”, “Birth month” and
„Birth year”.
 Types OF attributes

2. Single-valued, Multi-valued attributes

Most attributes have a single value for a particular
entity, such attributes are called single valued. E.g
age for a person.
Multi-valued attributes have more than one value for
a particular attribute. E.g degree a person may
have more than one degree, Telephone number etc.
 Types OF attributes

3. Stored vs derived attributes.

 In some cases two (or more) attributes are related;
e.g age and date of birth(DOB).
 The age can be determined from the DOB, so age is
a derived attribute and DOB is a stored attribute.
 TYPES of ATTRIBUTES

4. Null values.
 In some cases a particular entity may not have an
applicable value for an attribute. E.g a person with
no college degree would have null for college
degree.
 Data Type: MS access

⚫ Text: Any alphabetical/numerical data that you desire

Examples of Text data are: names, addresses, stock numbers,
room numbers, zip codes, etc.
⚫ Number :This field is for numbers where you want to add,
subtract, multiply, divide,
⚫ Date/Time: Dates and Times. You may format these later,
as you may desire.
⚫ Currency :Dollars ($). You may format these later, as you
may desire.
⚫ AutoNumber : This field is an “automatic” counter that
assigns a number each time you put data into a new field.
 Value Sets (Domains) of Attributes.

• Each simple attribute of an entity type is associated

with a value set (or domain of values), which
specifies the set of values that may be assigned to
that attribute for each individual entity.
 Guidelines for naming attributes

 Guidelines for naming attributes:

–Should be a noun and capitalizethe first letter of each word.
(Example: Student_ID.)
–An attribute name should be unique
–To make an attribute name unique and clear, each
attribute name should follow a standard format
–Similar attributes of different entity types should use
similar but distinguishing names.
 Criteria for selecting attributes

• Choose a candidate key that will not change its value.

• Choose a candidate key that has valid values and not
be null.
 Guidelines for naming and defining
entities
An entity type name is a singular noun
–An entity type should be descriptive and specific
–An entity name should be concise
–Event entity types should be named for the result of
the event, not the activity or process of the event.
Example of domain definitions
 Keys
 Candidate Key
 The minimal set of attributes that uniquely identifies
each occurrence of an entity type
 A candidate key is the minimal number of attributes,
whose value(s) uniquely identify each entity
occurrence. For example, the branch number
(branchNo) attribute is the candidate key for the
Branch entity type, and has a distinct value for each
branch entity occurrence
 Keys

• The candidate key must hold values that are unique

for every occurrence of an entity type.
• This implies that a candidate key cannot contain a
null.
• For example, each branch has a unique branch
number (for example, B003), and there will never be
more than one branch with the same branch number.
 keys
 Primary Key
 The candidate key that is selected to uniquely identify
each occurrence of an entity type. An entity type may
have more than one candidate key.
 Eg. consider that a member of staff has a unique
company-defined staff number (staffNo) and also a
unique National Insurance Number (NIN) that is
used by the government. We therefore have two
candidate keys for the Staff entity, one of which
must be selected as the primary key.
 Keys

• The choice of primary key for an entity is based on

considerations of attribute length, the minimal
number of attributes required, and the future
certainty of uniqueness. For example, the company-
defined staff number contains a maximum of five
characters (for example, SG14), and the NIN
contains a maximum of nine characters (for example,
WL220658D). Therefore, we select staffNo as the
primary key of the Staff entity type and NIN is then
referred to as the alternate key.
 Keys
 Composite Key
• A candidate key that consists of two or more
attributes
• In some cases, the key of an entity type is composed
of several attributes whose values together are
unique for each entity occurrence but not separately.
For example, consider an entity called Advert with
propertyNo (property number), newspaperName,
dateAdvert, and cost attributes.
 Keys

• Many properties are advertised in many newspapers

on a given date. To uniquely identify each occurrence
of the Advert entity type requires values for the
propertyNo, newspaperName, and dateAdvert
attributes.
• Thus, the Advert entity type has a composite primary
key made up of the propertyNo, newspaperName,
and dateAdvert attributes.
 RELATIONSHIPS AND RELATIONSHIP
SETS

• A relationship is an association among two or

more entities. E.g employee works in a department.
• Works-in is a relationship between employee and a
department.
• A relationship set is the set of similar relationships.
• It is represented by a diamond, with lines to each of
the entity sets involved
 Examples of Relationships

• ,
Person belongs Location

Student enrolls Subject(s)

Faculty teaches Subject(s)

 Relationship features

 Cardinality
 Entity instance‟s participation count
 Describes how many entity instance can be in the
relationship
 Cardinality

 Maximum cardinality (type of relationship)

Describes the maximum number of entity instances
that participate in a relationship
 One-to-one
 One-to-many
 Many-to-many
 Cardinality

 Minimum cardinality
Describes the minimum number of entity instances that
must participate in a relationship
 One-to-One Relationship

 One-to-One (1:1)
A single entity instance in one entity class is related to a
single entity instance in another entity class
Notation

A governor governs (only) one state; a state has (only) one governor
 One-to-Many Relationship

 One-to-Many (1:N)
A single entity instance in one entity class (parent) is
related to multiple entity instances in another entity
class (child) Notation

A book is published by (only) one publisher; a publisher can publish many

(multiple) books
 Many-to-Many Relationship

 Many-to-Many (N:M)
Each entity instance in one entity class is related to
multiple entity instances in another entity class; and vice
versa Notation

A book can be written by many (multiple) authors; an author can write

many (multiple) books
 Degree of Relationship

• Degree of Unary (one entity)

relationship: describes Binary (two entities)
the number of entities
involved in a Ternary (three
relationship entities)
 Unary Relationship

 Unary Relationship Is_married_to

 Relationship between
the instances of one
entity type
 Unary (recursive): only
1 entity PERSON
Unary Relationship

Manages

EMPLOYEE
 Binary Relationship

• Relationship ,
between the Is_assigned PARKING
EMPLOYEE
instances of two SPACE
entity type.
• Binary (two
entities)
relationship is most Contains
common PRODUCT
PRODUCTS
LINE
 Ternary Relationship

• A simultaneous .
relationship among PART
instances of three entity
types

VENDOR WAREHOUSE
Supplies
 Identifying relationship
The relationship associating the weak entity set with
the identifying entity set is called the identifying
relationship
 Participation Constraints

Total participation: all entities in one set

participate in relationship to other entities set. See
figure (a)
Partial participation: some entities in a
relationship participate to some entities in other
relationship. See figure (b)
 E-R Model Notation

1-to-1 relationship

1-to-M relationship

M-to-N relationship
Cardinality con’t
 Starting an ERD

1. Define the Entities.

2. Define the Relationships.
3. Add attributes to the relationships.
4. Add cardinality to the relationships.
5. Don‟t forget to use proper naming conventions and
symbol representation.
Example of E/R diagram

empid name did dname

Works_
employee department
in
 Examples

⚫Draw the ERD for the following scenarios:

•A player plays for a team.
• Each patient has one or more patient histories; each
instance of patient history belongs to one patient.
• An employee may be recorded as having many jobs; a
particular job may be recorded as having been held by many
employees.
• A person is a citizen of a country.
• A customer may place many orders; an order is specific to
one customer
 Workout

Draw the ERD for the following scenarios: salesperson may

manage many other salespeople. A salesperson is managed by
only one salespeople. A salesperson can be an agent for many
customers. A customer is managed by one salespeople. A
customer can place many orders. An order can be placed by
one customer. An order lists many inventory items. An
inventory item may be listed on many orders. An inventory
item is assembled from many parts. A part may be assembled
into many inventory items. Many employees assemble an
inventory item from many parts. A supplier supplies many
parts. A part may be supplied by many suppliers.
END