ER MODEL IN DBS

WHAT IS AN ENTITY RELATIONSHIP

DIAGRAM (ERD)?
An entity relationship diagram (ERD) shows the
relationships of entity sets stored in a database. An entity
in this context is an object, a component of data. An
entity set is a collection of similar entities. These entities
can have attributes that define its properties.

By defining the entities, their attributes, and showing the

relationships between them, an ER diagram illustrates
the logical structure of databases.
ER diagrams are used to sketch out the design of a
database.
 ER MODEL
 ER model stands for an Entity-Relationship model. It is a
high-level data model. This model is used to define the
data elements and relationship for a specified system.
 It develops a conceptual design for the database. It also
develops a very simple and easy to design view of data.
 In ER modeling, the database structure is portrayed as a
diagram called an entity-relationship diagram.
For example, Suppose we design a III year B.Com
database. In this database, the student will be an entity
with attributes like address, name, id, age, etc. The
address can be another entity with attributes like city,
street name, pin code, etc and there will be a relationship
between them.
COMPONENT OF ER DIAGRAM
 ENTITY:

 An entity may be any object, class, person or place. In

the ER diagram, an entity can be represented as
rectangles.
 Consider an organization as an example- manager,
product, employee, department etc. can be taken as an
entity.
2. ATTRIBUTE
The attribute is used to describe the property of an entity.
Eclipse is used to represent an attribute.
For example, id, age, contact number, name, etc. can be
attributes of a student.
 KEY ATTRIBUTE
The key attribute is used to represent the main
characteristics of an entity. It represents a primary key.
The key attribute is represented by an ellipse with the
text underlined.
COMPOSITE ATTRIBUTE
An attribute that composed of many other attributes is
known as a composite attribute. The composite attribute
is represented by an ellipse, and those ellipses are
connected with an ellipse.
MULTIVALUED ATTRIBUTE
An attribute can have more than one value. These attributes
are known as a multivalued attribute. The double oval is
used to represent multivalued attribute.
For example, a student can have more than one phone
number.
DERIVED ATTRIBUTE
An attribute that can be derived from other attribute is
known as a derived attribute. It can be represented by a
dashed ellipse.
For example, A person's age changes over time and can be
derived from another attribute like Date of birth.
MAPPING CONSTRAINTS
 A mapping constraint is a data constraint that expresses
the number of entities to which another entity can be
related via a relationship set.
 It is most useful in describing the relationship sets that
involve more than two entity sets.
 For binary relationship set R on an entity set A and B,
there are four possible mapping cardinalities. These are
as follows:
i. One to one (1:1)
ii. One to many (1:M)
iii. Many to one (M:1)
iv. Many to many (M:M)
ONE-TO-ONE
In one-to-one mapping, an entity in E1 is associated with at
most one entity in E2, and an entity in E2 is associated
with at most one entity in E1.
ONE-TO-MANY
In one-to-many mapping, an entity in E1 is associated with
any number of entities in E2, and an entity in E2 is
associated with at most one entity in E1.
MANY-TO-ONE
In one-to-many mapping, an entity in E1 is associated with
at most one entity in E2, and an entity in E2 is associated
with any number of entities in E1.
MANY-TO-MANY

In many-to-many mapping, an entity in E1 is associated

with any number of entities in E2, and an entity in E2 is
associated with any number of entities in E1.
KEYS
 Keys play an important role in the relational database.
 It is used to uniquely identify any record or row of data
from the table. It is also used to establish and identify
relationships between tables.
For example: In Student table, ID is used as a key because
it is unique for each student. In PERSON table,
passport_number, license_number, SSN are keys since
they are unique for each person.
TYPES OF KEY:
 PRIMARY KEY
It is the first key which is used to identify one and only one
instance of an entity uniquely. An entity can contain
multiple keys as we saw in PERSON table. The key
which is most suitable from those lists become a primary
key.
ENTITY RELATIONSHIP DIAGRAM
EXTENDED E-R FEATURES –
SPECIALIZATION
 An entity set may include sub-groupings of entities that are distinct in some way from other
entities in the set. For instance, a subset of entities within an entity set may have attributes that are
not shared by all the entities in the entity set.

As an example, the entity set person may be further classified as one of the following: employee,
student.

Each of these person types is described by a set of attributes that includes all the attributes of
entity set person plus possibly additional attributes.

The process of designating sub-groupings within an entity set is called specialization.

For example, : A university divides students into two categories: graduate and undergraduate.
Graduate students have an office assigned to them. Undergraduate students are assigned to a
residential college. Each of these student types is described by a set of attributes that includes all
the attributes of the entity set student plus additional attributes.

An entity set may be specialized by more than one distinguishing feature. A distinguishing
feature among employee entities is the job the employee performs.