Database Management-Theory (2030106304)

BHAGWAN MAHAVIR UNIVERSITY

BHAGWAN MAHAVIR POLYTECHNIC
COMPUTER ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT
THEORY NOTES
Database Management - Theory (2030106304)
Unit- 3: Entity Relationship Model

1. What is E-R Model? Marks-3

 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 school 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.

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2. Explain Basic Concepts of E-R. Marks-3/5

 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.

a). Weak Entity

An entity that depends on another entity called a weak entity. The weak entity
doesn't contain any key attribute of its own. The weak entity is represented by a double
rectangle.

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 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.

a. 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.

b. 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.

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c. 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.

d. Derived Attribute

 An attribute that can be derived from other attribute is known as a derived attribute. It can
be represented bya dashed ellipse.
 For example, A person's age changes over time and can be derived from another attribute
like Date of birth.

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 Relationship

 A relationship is used to describe the relation between entities. Diamond or rhombus

is used to represent the relationship.

 Types of relationship are as follows:

a. One-to-One Relationship
 When only one instance of an entity is associated with the relationship, then it is
known as one to one relationship.
 For example, A female can marry to one male, and a male can marry to one female.

b. One-to-many relationship
 When only one instance of the entity on the left, and more than one instance of
an entity on the right associates with the relationship then this is known as a one-to-
many relationship.
 For example, Scientist can invent many inventions, but the invention is done by the
only specific scientist.

c. Many-to-one relationship
 When more than one instance of the entity on the left, and only one instance of
an entity on the right associates with the relationship then it is known as a many-to-
one relationship.
 For example, Student enrolls for only one course, but a course can have many

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students.

d. Many-to-many relationship
 When more than one instance of the entity on the left, and more than one instance
of an entity on the right associates with the relationship then it is known as a many-to
-many relationship.
 For example, Employee can assign by many projects and project can have many
employees.

3. Explain Mapping Cardinality. Marks-4

o A mapping constraint is a data constraint that expresses the number of entities to which
another entity can be related via a relationship set.
o It is most useful in describing the relationship sets that involve more than two entity sets.
o For binary relationship set R on an entity set A and B, there are four possible mapping
cardinalities. These are as follows:
1. One to one (1:1)

2. One to many (1:M)

3. Many to one (M:1)

4. Many to many (M:M)

a. 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.

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b. 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.

c. 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.

d. 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.

4. Explain Keys. Marks-4

o Keys play an important role in the relational database.
o 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.\

o For example, ID is used as a key in the Student table because it is unique for each
student. In the PERSON table, passport_number, license_number, SSN are keys since they
are unique for each person.

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 Types of keys:

1. Primary key
o It is the first key used to identify one and only one instance of an entity uniquely. An entity
can contain multiple keys, as we saw in the PERSON table. The key which is most suitable
from those lists becomes a primary key.
o In the EMPLOYEE table, ID can be the primary key since it is unique for each employee.
In the EMPLOYEE table, we can even select License_Number and Passport_Number as
primary keys since they are also unique.
o For each entity, the primary key selection is based on requirements and developers.

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2. Candidate key

o A candidate key is an attribute or set of attributes that can uniquely identify a tuple.
o Except for the primary key, the remaining attributes are considered a candidate key. The
candidate keys are as strong as the primary key.

o For example: In the EMPLOYEE table, id is best suited for the primary key. The rest of
the attributes, like SSN, Passport_Number, License_Number, etc., are considered a
candidate key.

3. Super Key
o Super key is an attribute set that can uniquely identify a tuple. A super key is a superset of a
candidate key.

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o For example: In the above EMPLOYEE table, for(EMPLOEE_ID, EMPLOYEE_NAME),

the name of two employees can be the same, but their EMPLYEE_ID can't be the same.
Hence, this combination can also be a key.
The super key would be EMPLOYEE-ID (EMPLOYEE_ID, EMPLOYEE-NAME),
etc.
4. Foreign key

o Foreign keys are the column of the table used to point to the primary key of another table.
o Every employee works in a specific department in a company, and employee and department
are two different entities. So we can't store the department's information in the employee
table. That's why we link these two tables through the primary key of one table.
o We add the primary key of the DEPARTMENT table, Department_Id, as a new attribute in
the EMPLOYEE table.
o In the EMPLOYEE table, Department_Id is the foreign key, and both the tables are related.

5. Alternate key
o There may be one or more attributes or a combination of attributes that uniquely identify
each tuple in a relation. These attributes or combinations of the attributes are called the
candidate keys. One key is chosen as the primary key from these candidate keys, and the
remaining candidate key, if it exists, is termed the alternate key. In other words, the total

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number of the alternate keys is the total number of candidate keys minus the primary key.
The alternate key may or may not exist. If there is only one candidate key in a relation, it
does not have an alternate key.
o For example, employee relation has two attributes, Employee_Id and PAN_No, that act as
candidate keys. In this relation, Employee_Id is chosen as the primary key, so the other
candidate key, PAN_No, acts as the Alternate key.

6. Composite key
o Whenever a primary key consists of more than one attribute, it is known as a composite key.
This key is also known as Concatenated Key.

5. Explain Weak Entities. Marks-3

 A weak entity is a type of entity which doesn’t have its key attribute. It can be
identified uniquely by considering the primary key of another entity. For that, weak
entity sets need to have participation.

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 In above ER Diagram examples, “Trans No” is a discriminator within a group of
transactions in an ATM.
 Let’s learn more about a weak entity by comparing it with a Strong Entity
Strong Entity Set Weak Entity Set
It does not have enough attributes to build a
Strong entity set always has a primary primary
key.
key.
It is represented by a rectangle symbol. It is represented by a double rectangle symbol.
It contains a Primary key represented It contains a Partial Key which is
by the underline symbol. represented by a dashed underline symbol.
The member of a strong entity The member of a weak entity set
set is called as dominant entity called as a subordinate entity set.
set.
Primary Key is one of its attributes In a weak entity set, it is a combination of
which helps to identify its member. primary key and partial key of the strong
entity set.
In the ER diagram the relationship The relationship between one strong and a
between two strong entity set shown weak entity set shown by using the double
by using a diamond symbol. diamond symbol.
The connecting line of the strong entity The line connecting the weak entity set for
set with the relationship is single. identifying relationship is double

6. What is E-R Diagram? Marks-2

 ER Diagram stands for Entity Relationship Diagram, also known as ERD is a diagram
that displays the relationship of entity sets stored in a database. In other words, ER
diagrams help to explain the logical structure of databases. ER diagrams are created
based on three basic concepts: entities, attributes and relationships.
 ER Diagrams contain different symbols that use rectangles to represent entities, ovals to
define attributes and diamond shapes to represent relationships.
7. Explain E-R Diagram Symbols & Notations. Marks-4
 Entity Relationship Diagram Symbols & Notations mainly contains three basic
symbols which are rectangle, oval and diamond to represent relationships between
elements, entities and attributes. There are some sub-elements which are based on main
elements in ERD Diagram. ER Diagram is a visual representation of data that

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describes how data is related to each other using different ERD Symbols and
Notations.
 Following are the main components and its symbols in ER Diagrams:

 Rectangles: This Entity Relationship Diagram symbol represents entity types

 Ellipses : Symbol represent attributes
 Diamonds: This symbol represents relationship types
 Lines: It links attributes to entity types and entity types with other
relationship types
 Primary key: attributes are underlined
 Double Ellipses: Represent multi-valued attributes

8. Explain Generalization. Marks-4

 Generalization is like a bottom-up approach in which two or more entities of lower
level combine to form a higher level entity if they have some attributes in common.

 In generalization, an entity of a higher level can also combine with the entities of
the lower level to form a further higher level entity.

 Generalization is more like subclass and superclass system, but the only difference
is the approach. Generalization uses the bottom-up approach.

 In generalization, entities are combined to form a more generalized entity, i.e.,

subclasses are combined to make a superclass.

 For example, Faculty and Student entities can be generalized and create a higher
level entity Person.

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9. Explain Specialization. Marks-4

 Specialization is a top-down approach, and it is opposite to Generalization. In
specialization, one higher level entity can be broken down into two lower level
entities.

 Specialization is used to identify the subset of an entity set that shares some
distinguishing characteristics.

 Normally, the superclass is defined first, the subclass and its related attributes
are defined next, and relationship set are then added.

 For example: In an Employee management system, EMPLOYEE entity can be

specialized as TESTER or DEVELOPER based on what role they play in the
company.

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10. Explain Aggregation. Marks-4
 In aggregation, the relation between two entities is treated as a single entity. In
aggregation, relationship with its corresponding entities is aggregated into a higher
level entity.

 For example: Center entity offers the Course entity act as a single entity in the
relationship which is in a relationship with another entity visitor. In the real world, if
a visitor visits a coaching center then he will never enquiry about the Course only or
just about the Center instead he will ask the enquiry about both.

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