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Lectures 2014 Handout4 DataModeling EER

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Lectures 2014 Handout4 DataModeling EER

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2.

2 Enhanced-ER (EER) Model Concepts


• Includes all modeling concepts of basic ER

• Additional concepts: subclasses/superclasses, specialization/generalization, categories, attribute


inheritance
• The resulting model is called the enhanced-ER or Extended ER (EER) model
• It is used to model applications more completely and accurately if needed

• It includes some object-oriented concepts, such as inheritance

Subclasses and Superclasses

• An entity type may have additional meaningful subgroupings of its entities

– Example: EMPLOYEE may be further grouped into SECRETARY, ENGINEER, MAN-


AGER, TECHNICIAN, SALARIED EMPLOYEE, HOURLY EMPLOYEE, . . .
– Each of these groupings is a subset of EMPLOYEE entities
– Each is called a subclass of EMPLOYEE
– EMPLOYEE is the superclass for each of these subclasses

• These are called superclass/subclass relationships.


– Example: EMPLOYEE/SECRETARY, EMPLOYEE/TECHNICIAN

• These are also called IS-A relationships (SECRETARY IS-A EMPLOYEE, TECHNICIAN IS-A
EMPLOYEE, . . . ).
• Note: An entity that is member of a subclass represents the same real-world entity as some member
of the superclass

– The Subclass member is the same entity in a distinct specific role


– An entity cannot exist in the database merely by being a member of a subclass; it must also
be a member of the superclass
– A member of the superclass can be optionally included as a member of any number of its
subclasses

• Example: A salaried employee who is also an engineer belongs to the two subclasses ENGINEER
and SALARIED EMPLOYEE
– It is not necessary that every entity in a superclass be a member of some subclass

Attribute Inheritance in Superclass/ Subclass Relationships

• An entity that is member of a subclass inherits all attributes of the entity as a member of the
superclass
• It also inherits all relationships

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Specialization

• Is the process of defining a set of subclasses of a superclass


• The set of subclasses is based upon some distinguishing characteristics of the entities in the super-
class
• Example: SECRETARY, ENGINEER, TECHNICIAN is a specialization of EMPLOYEE based
upon job type.
– May have several specializations of the same superclass
• Example: Another specialization of EMPLOYEE based in method of pay is SALARIED EMPLOYEE,
HOURLY EMPLOYEE.

– Superclass/subclass relationships and specialization can be diagrammatically represented in


EER diagrams
– Attributes of a subclass are called specific attributes. For example, TypingSpeed of SECRE-
TARY
– The subclass can participate in specific relationship types. For example, BELONGS TO of
HOURLY EMPLOYEE

Figure 11: Example of Specialization

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Figure 12: EER diagram notation to represent subclasses and specialization

Generalization

• The reverse of the specialization process


• Several classes with common features are generalized into a superclass; original classes become its
subclasses

• Example: CAR, TRUCK generalized into VEHICLE; both CAR, TRUCK become subclasses of
the superclass VEHICLE.
– We can view CAR, TRUCK as a specialization of VEHICLE
– Alternatively, we can view VEHICLE as a generalization of CAR and TRUCK

• Two other conditions apply to a specialization/generalization


• Disjointness Constraint
– Specifies that the subclasses of the specialization must be disjointed (an entity can be a
member of at most one of the subclasses of the specialization)
– Specified by d in EER diagram
– If not disjointed, overlap; that is the same entity may be a member of more than one subclass
of the specialization
– Specified by o in EER diagram

• Completeness Constraint

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Figure 13: Examples of generalization

– Total specifies that every entity in the superclass must be a member of some subclass in the
specialization/ generalization
– Shown in EER diagrams by a double line
– Partial allows an entity not to belong to any of the subclasses
– Shown in EER diagrams by a single line

• Hence, we have four types of specialization/generalization:


– Disjoint, total
– Disjoint, partial
– Overlapping, total
– Overlapping, partial
• Note: Generalization usually is total because the superclass is derived from the subclasses.

Categories (UNION TYPES)

• All of the superclass/subclass relationships we have seen thus far have a single superclass
• A shared subclass is subclass in more than one distinct superclass/subclass relationships, where
each relationships has a single superclass (multiple inheritance)
• In some cases, need to model a single superclass/subclass relationship with more than one superclass

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Figure 14: Example of disjoint partial specialization

• Superclasses represent different entity types

• Such a subclass is called a category or UNION TYPE

• Example: Database for vehicle registration, vehicle owner can be a person, a bank (holding a lien
on a vehicle) or a company.
– Category (subclass) OWNER is a subset of the union of the three superclasses COMPANY,
BANK, and PERSON
– A category member must exist in at least one of its superclasses

• Note: The difference from shared subclass, which is subset of the intersection of its superclasses(shared
subclass member must exist in all of its superclasses).

File: Lectures 2014.tex Date: Thursday 13th February, 2014 8:57am Revision: 0.3

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Figure 15: Example of overlapping specialization

Figure 16: Example of categories (UNION TYPES)

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Figure 17: An EER conceptual schema for a UNIVERSITY database. Refer section 4.5 (8.5.1 in 6th
edition) of the text book for more information.

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