Enhanced ER Model

Last Updated : 07 Jun, 2025

As data complexity grows, the traditional ER

model becomes less effective for database
modeling. Enhanced ER diagrams extend the
basic ER model to better represent complex
applications. They support advanced concepts
like subclasses, generalization, specialization,
aggregation, and categories.
ER model
The ER model is the abstract representation of a
database structure that defines
Entities in a database.
Attributes that they had.
Relationships between them.
What is an Enhanced ER model?
Enhanced ERMs are high-level models that
represent the requirements and complexities of
complex databases. The EER model includes all
modeling concepts of the ER model. In addition,
EER includes the following concepts.
Subclasses and Superclasses
Specialization and Generalization
Category or Union type
Attribute and Relationship Inheritance
Superclass and Subclass
A superclass is a high-level entity that can be
further segmented into subclasses or subsets. It is
also referred to as a Parent class. A subclass can
be referred to as a child or derived class.
Example: Science is a Super class which has
subclasses like Physics, Chemistry, Biology.
Generalization and Specialization
Generalization and Specialization are common
relationships added as enhancements to the
classical ER model. A subclass (specialized class)
inherits from a superclass (generalized class),
similar to object-oriented concepts. This is best
understood using IS-A relationships like
“Technician IS-A Employee” or “Laptop IS-A
Computer.”
An entity is a specialized type/class of another
entity. For example, a Technician is a special
Employee in a university system Faculty is a
special class of Employees. We call this
phenomenon generalization/specialization. Here
Employee is a generalized entity class while the
Technician and Faculty are specialized classes of
Employee.
Example:
This example instance of "sub-class"
relationships. Here we have four sets of
employees: Secretary, Technician, and Engineer.
The employee is a super-class of the rest three
sets of individual sub-class is a subset of
Employee set.

An entity belonging to a sub-class is related to

some super-class entity. For instance emp, no
1001 is a secretary, and his typing speed is 68.
Emp no 1009 is an engineer (sub-class) and her
trade is “Electrical”, so forth.
Sub-class entity “inherits” all attributes of super-
class; for example, employee 1001 will have
attributes eno, name, salary, and typing speed.
Enhanced ER Model of Above Example

Constraints
There are two types of constraints on the “Sub-
class” relationship.
Total or Partial Sub-classing
Total: Every entity in the superclass must be in at
least one subclass (e.g., every employee is either
salaried or hourly).
Partial: Some entities may not belong to any
subclass (e.g., not all employees are a secretary,
engineer, or technician).
Total subclassing means complete coverage;
partial means incomplete coverage.
Overlapped or Disjoint Sub-Classing
Overlapped: An entity can belong to multiple
subclasses.
Disjoint: An entity can belong to only one
subclass.
In the given examples, both job-type and salary-
based subclassing are disjoint, meaning no
overlap.
Note - These constraints are independent of each
other: can be "overlapped and total or partial" or
"disjoint and total or partial". Also, sub-classing
has transitive properties.
Multiple Inheritance (Sub-Class of Multiple
Superclasses)
An entity can be a sub-class of multiple entity
types such entities are sub-class of multiple
entities and have multiple super-classes. In
multiple inheritances, attributes of sub-class are
the union of attributes of all super-classes.
Example: Teaching Assistant can subclass of
Employee and Student both. A faculty in a
university system can be a subclass of Employee
and Alumnus.
Union
Set of Library Members is UNION of Faculty,
Student, and Staff. A union relationship indicates
either type; for example, a library member is
either Faculty or Staff or Student.
Below are two examples that show how UNION
can be depicted in ERD – Vehicle Owner is
UNION of PERSON and Company, and RTO
Registered Vehicle is UNION of Car and Truck.

There might be some confusion in Sub-class and

UNION.
Consider an example in above figure Vehicle is
super-class of CAR and Truck. In the example,
Vehicle is a superclass of Car and Truck, which
normally implies inheritance of attributes.
However, in the RTO-registered case, Car and
Truck form a union without inheriting from Vehicle,
each has independent attributes.
An Enhanced Entity-Relationship (EER) model is
an extension of the original Entity-Relationship
(ER) model that includes additional concepts and
features to support more complex data model
requirements. It supports complex features, such
as subtypes and supertypes, generalization and
specialization, and inheritance.
Key Features of the EER Model
Subtypes and Supertypes: The EER model allows
for the creation of subtypes and supertypes. It
allows the creation of a hierarchy where a
supertype represents general attributes and
subtypes represent specialized entities (e.g.,
Vehicle → Car, Truck).
Generalization and Specialization: Generalization
is the process of identifying common attributes
and combines common features into a supertype,
while Specialization is the process of defining
subtypes with unique attributes from a supertype.
Inheritance: Inheritance is a mechanism that
allows subtypes to inherit attributes and
relationships from their supertype. This means
that any attribute or relationship defined for a
supertype is automatically inherited by all its
subtypes.
Constraints: The EER model allows for the
specification of constraints that must be satisfied
by entities and relationships. Examples of
constraints include cardinality constraints, which
specify the number of relationships that can exist
which tells whether an entity is required to
participate in a relationship.
Subclasses and Superclasses: EER model allows
for the creation of a hierarchical structure of
entities where a superclass can have one or more
subclasses. Each subclass inherits attributes and
relationships from its superclass, and it can also
have its unique attributes and relationships.
Attribute Inheritance: EER model allows attributes
to be inherited from a superclass to its
subclasses. This means that attributes defined in
the superclass are automatically inherited by all
its subclasses.
Union Types: E ER model allows for the creation
of a union type, which is a combination of two or
more entity types. The union type can have
attributes and relationships that are common to all
the entity types that make up the union.
Aggregation: EER model allows for the creation of
an aggregate entity that represents a group of
entities as a single entity. The aggregate entity
has its unique attributes and relationships.
Multi-valued Attributes: EER model allows an
attribute to have multiple values for a single entity
instance. For example, an entity representing a
person may have multiple phone numbers.
Relationships with Attributes: EER model allows
relationships between entities to have attributes.
These attributes can describe the nature of the
relationship or provide additional information
about the relationship.