UNIT-I

PART-II : Introduction to Database Design

Symbols Used in ER Model
ER Model is used to model the logical view of the system from a
data perspective which consists of these symbols:
 Rectangles: Rectangles represent Entities in the ER Model.
 Ellipses: Ellipses represent Attributes in the ER Model.
 Diamond: Diamonds represent Relationships among Entities.
 Lines: Lines represent attributes to entities and entity sets with
other relationship types.
 Double Ellipse: Double Ellipses represent Multi-Valued
Attributes.
 Double Rectangle: Double Rectangle represents a Weak Entity.

Symbols used in ER Diagram

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ER (Entity Relationship) Diagram in DBMS:
o 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.
o It develops a conceptual design for the database. It also develops
a very simple and easy to design view of data.
o In ER modelling, 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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Component of ER Diagram

1. 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.

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1. Strong Entity
A Strong Entity is a type of entity that has a key Attribute.
Strong Entity does not depend on other Entity in the Schema. It has a
primary key, that helps in identifying it uniquely, and it is
represented by a rectangle. These are called Strong Entity Types.
2. Weak Entity
An Entity type has a key attribute that uniquely identifies each
entity in the entity set. But some entity type exists for which key
attributes can’t be defined. These are called Weak Entity types.
Example: A company may store the information of dependents
(Parents, Children, Spouse) of an Employee. But the dependents
don’t have existed without the employee. So Dependent will be
a Weak Entity Type and Employee will be Identifying Entity type
for Dependent, which means it is Strong Entity Type.
A weak entity type is represented by a Double Rectangle. The
participation of weak entity types is always total. The relationship
between the weak entity type and its identifying strong entity type is
called identifying relationship and it is represented by a double
diamond.

Strong Entity and Weak Entity

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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.

2.Attribute:
The attribute is used to describe the property of an entity.
Eclipse is used to represent an attribute.

Example : id, age, contact number, name, etc. can be attributes of a

student.

a. Key Attribute:
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 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.

c.Multivalued Attribute

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 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.

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 by a dashed ellipse.

Example, A person's age changes over time and can be derived from
another attribute like Date of birth.

3.Relationship

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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.

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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 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.

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The Complete Entity Type Student with its Attributes can be
represented as:

Entity and Attributes

Relationship Type and Relationship Set

A Relationship Type represents the association between entity types.
For example, ‘Enrolled in’ is a relationship type that exists between
entity type Student and Course. In ER diagram, the relationship type
is represented by a diamond and connecting the entities with lines.

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 Entity-Relationship Set

A set of relationships of the same type is known as a relationship set.

The following relationship set depicts S1 as enrolled in C2, S2 as
enrolled in C1, and S3 as registered in C3.

Relationship Set

Degree of a Relationship Set

The number of different entity sets participating in a relationship set is

called the degree of a relationship set.

1.Unary Relationship: When there is only ONE entity set

participating in a relation, the relationship is called a unary
relationship. For example, one person is married to only one person.

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 Unary Relationship

2.Binary Relationship: When there are TWO entities set

participating in a relationship, the relationship is called a binary
relationship. For example, a Student is enrolled in a Course.

Binary Relationship

3.n-ary Relationship: When there are n entities set participating

in a relation, the relationship is called an n-ary relationship.

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

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 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.

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.

Types of keys:

1. Primary key

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 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.

2.Candidate key

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 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.

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: 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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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.

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Participation Constraint
Participation Constraint is applied to the entity participating in the
relationship set.
1.Total Participation– Each entity in the entity set must
participate in the relationship. If each student must enroll in a course,
the participation of students will be total. Total participation is shown
by a double line in the ER diagram.
2.Partial Participation– The entity in the entity set may or may
NOT participate in the relationship. If some courses are not enrolled
by any of the students, the participation in the course will be partial.

The diagram depicts the ‘Enrolled in’ relationship set with Student
Entity set having total participation and Course Entity set having
partial participation.

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 Total Participation and Partial Participation

Using Set, it can be represented as,

Set representation of Total Participation and Partial Participation

Every student in the Student Entity set participates in a relationship

but there exists a course C4 that is not taking part in the relationship.

Generalization
o 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.
o 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.

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 o Generalization is more like subclass and superclass system, but
the only difference is the approach. Generalization uses the
bottom-up approach.
o In generalization, entities are combined to form a more
generalized entity, i.e., subclasses are combined to make a
superclass.

Example, Faculty and Student entities can be generalized and create

a higher level entity Person.

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

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

Example: In an Employee management system, EMPLOYEE entity

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

Aggregation
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.

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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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