Chapter 4 The Enhanced

Entity-Relationship (EER) Model

Dr. Bernard Chen Ph.D.
University of Central Arkansas
EER Model
The ER model concepts are sufficient for representing many
database schemas for traditional database applications, which
mainly include data-processing applications in business and
industry.

However, designers of database applications have tried to
design more accurate database schemas that reflect the data
properties and constrains more precisely

In this chapter, we describe features that have been proposed
for semantic data models, and show how the ER model can be
enhanced to include these concepts.
Outline
Subclasses, Superclasses and
Inheritance
Specialization and Generalization
Constrains and Characteristics
Union
Subclasses, Superclasses and
Inheritance
In many cases an entity type has numerous
subgroupings of its entities that are meaningful and
need to be represented explicitly because of their
significance to the database application.

For example: EMPLOYEE may be further grouped
into:
SECRETARY, ENGINEER, TECHNICIAN,
Based on the EMPLOYEEs Job
MANAGER
EMPLOYEEs who are managers
SALARIED_EMPLOYEE, HOURLY_EMPLOYEE
Based on the EMPLOYEEs method of pay

Subclasses and Superclasses
Subclasses, Superclasses and
Inheritance
We call each of these subgroupings a subclass of the
EMPLOYEE entity type, and the EMPLOYEE entity type is called
the superclass for each of these subclasses.

These are called superclass/subclass (as well as simply
class/subclass) :

EMPLOYEE/SECRETARY
EMPLOYEE/TECHNICIAN
EMPLOYEE/MANAGER


These are also called IS-A relationships
SECRETARY IS-A EMPLOYEE, TECHNICIAN IS-A EMPLOYEE, .


Subclasses, Superclasses and
Inheritance
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

Subclasses and Superclasses
Example
A salaried employee who is also an engineer
belongs to the two subclasses:
ENGINEER, and
SALARIED_EMPLOYEE

A salaried employee who is also an engineering
manager belongs to the three subclasses:
MANAGER,
ENGINEER, and
SALARIED_EMPLOYEE

It is not necessary that every entity in a superclass be a
member of some subclass
Subclasses and Superclasses
Subclasses, Superclasses and
Inheritance
An important concept associated with
subclasses is that of type inheritance

An entity that is member of a subclass
inherits
All attributes of the entity as a member of the
superclass
All relationships of the entity as a member of the
superclass


Subclasses, Superclasses and
Inheritance
Example:
In the previous slide, SECRETARY (as well
as TECHNICIAN and ENGINEER) inherit the
attributes Name, SSN, , from EMPLOYEE
Every SECRETARY entity will have values
for the inherited attributes
Every SECRETARY entity will also keep all
relationships

Outline
Subclasses, Superclasses and
Inheritance
Specialization and Generalization
Constrains and Characteristics
Union
Specialization
Specialization is the process of defining a
set of subclasses of an entity type

The set of subclasses is based upon some
distinguishing characteristics of the entities in
the superclass

Example: {SECRETARY, ENGINEER, TECHNICIAN}
is a specialization of EMPLOYEE based upon job
type.


Specialization (Top-Down)
It may have several specializations of the
same superclass

Example: Another specialization of EMPLOYEE based
on method of pay is {SALARIED_EMPLOYEE,
HOURLY_EMPLOYEE}.


The subset symbol on each line connecting a
subclass to indicates the direction of the
superclass/subclass relationship




Subclasses and Superclasses
Specialization (Top-Down)
Attributes of a subclass are called specific
or local attributes.
For example, the attribute TypingSpeed of
SECRETARY

The subclass can also participate in specific
relationship types.
For example, a relationship BELONGS_TO of
HOURLY_EMPLOYEE

Specialization (Top-Down)
There are two major reasons for including
class/subclass relationship and specialization in a
data model:

1. Certain attributes may apply to some but not all
entities of the superclass (secretary subclass has
local attribute Typing speed where engineer has
eng_type)
2. some relationship types may be participate in only
by entities that are members of the subclass
(Hourly_employees are related to Trade_nuion via
velongs_to)

Specialization (Top-Down)
In summary, the specialization process
allows us to do the following:
Define a set of subclass of an entity type
Establish additional specific attributes with
each subclass
Establish additional specific relationship
types between each subclass and other
entity types or other subclasses

Generalization (Bottom Up)
Generalization is the reverse of the
specialization process

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

Generalization (Bottom Up)
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

Generalization (2)
Outline
Subclasses, Superclasses and
Inheritance
Specialization and Generalization
Constrains and Characteristics
Union
Constraints on Specialization
and Generalization
Two basic constraints can apply to a
specialization/generalization:
Disjointness Constraint:
Completeness Constraint:

Constraints on Specialization
and Generalization
Disjointness Constraint:
Specifies that the subclasses of the
specialization must be disjoint: an entity
can be a member of at most one of the
subclasses of the specialization

Specified by d in EER diagram

Displaying an attribute-defined
specialization in EER diagrams
Constraints on Specialization
and Generalization

If not disjoint, specialization is overlapping:
that is the same entity may be a member of
more than one subclass of the specialization

Specified by o in EER diagram

Example of overlapping total Specialization
Constraints on Specialization
and Generalization
Completeness Constraint:
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

In general, a superclass that was identified through the
generalization process usually total, because the superclass
is derived from the subclasses and hence contains only the
entities that are in the subclass

Constraints on Specialization and
Generalization (6)
Hence, we have four types of
specialization/generalization:

Disjoint, total
Disjoint, partial
Overlapping, total
Overlapping, partial
Constraints on Specialization
and Generalization
Some general rules:
Deleting an entity from s superclass implies
that it is automatically deleted from all the
subclasses to which it belongs
Inserting an entity in a superclass of a total
specialization implies that the entity is
mandatorily inserted in at least one of the
subclasses of the specialization
Specialization/Generalization
Hierarchies, Lattices
A subclass may itself have further subclasses
specified on it

Hierarchy has a constraint that every subclass has
only one superclass (called single inheritance); this
is basically a tree structure

In a lattice, a subclass can be subclass of more than
one superclass (called multiple inheritance)

Shared Subclass Engineering_Manager
Specialization/Generalization
Hierarchies, Lattices
Leaf node is a class that has no subclasses
of its own

A subclass with more than one superclass is
called a shared subclass (multiple
inheritance)

Notice that the existence of at least one
shared subclass leads to a lattice, otherwise,
its a hierarchy
Specialization / Generalization
Lattice Example (UNIVERSITY)
Outline
Subclasses, Superclasses and
Inheritance
Specialization and Generalization
Constrains and Characteristics
Union
Union
All of the superclass/subclass relationships we
have seen so far origin from a single
superclass

Sometimes we may need more than one
superclass
In this case, the subclass will represent a
collection of objects that is a subset of the
UNION of distinct entity types
We call such a subclass a UNION TYPE
Union
Example: In a database for vehicle
registration, a vehicle owner can be a
PERSON, a BANK (holding a lien on a
vehicle) or a COMPANY.
A UNION type called OWNER is created to
represent a subset of the union of the
three superclasses COMPANY, BANK, and
PERSON

Two categories (UNION types):
OWNER, REGISTERED_VEHICLE
Union
We can compare a UNION (OWNER) with shared subclass
(ENGINEERING_MANAGER)

The latter is a subclass of each of the three superclass
ENGINEER, MANAGER and SALARIED_EMPLOYEE, so an entity
that us a member of ENGINEERING_MANAGER must exist in
all three

This means that an engineering manager must be an
ENGINEER, a MANAGER, and a SALARIED_EMPLOYEE

On the other hand, an entity that is a member of OWNER must
exist in only one of the superclass
Shared Subclass Engineering_Manager
UNION
Attribute inheritance works more selectively
in the case of UNION.

For example, OWNER entity inherits
attributes of a COMPANY, a PERSON OR a
BANK

A shared subclass such as
ENGINEERING_MANAGER inherits ALL the
attributes of its superclasses
EER
Example