Chapter 4:
The Enhanced ER Model
and Business Rules
Modern Database
Management
8th Edition
Jeffrey A. Hoffer, Mary B. Prescott,
Fred R. McFadden
2007 by Prentice Hall
Objectives
Definition of terms
Use of supertype/subtype relationships
Use of generalization and specialization techniques
Specification of completeness and disjointness
constraints
Develop supertype/subtype hierarchies for realistic
business situations
Develop entity clusters
Explain universal data model
Name categories of business rules
Define operational constraints graphically and in
English
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Supertypes and Subtypes
Subtype: A subgrouping of the entities in an
entity type that has attributes distinct from
those in other subgroupings
Supertype: A generic entity type that has a
relationship with one or more subtypes
Attribute Inheritance:
Subtype entities inherit values of all
attributes of the supertype
An instance of a subtype is also an instance
of the supertype
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Figure 4-1 Basic notation for supertype/subtype notation
a) EER
notatio
n
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Figure 4-1 Basic notation for supertype/subtype notation (cont.)
b)
Microsoft
Visio
Notation
Different modeling tools may have different notation for the
same modeling constructs
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Figure 4-2 Employee supertype with three subtypes
All employee subtypes
will have emp nbr, name,
address, and date-hired
Each employee subtype
will also have its own
attributes
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Relationships and Subtypes
Relationships at the supertype level
indicate that all subtypes will
participate in the relationship
The instances of a subtype may
participate in a relationship unique to
that subtype. In this situation, the
relationship is shown at the subtype
level
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Figure 4-3 Supertype/subtype relationships in a hospital
Both
outpatients
and resident
patients are
cared for by
a responsible
physician
Only resident patients are
assigned to a bed
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Generalization and
Specialization
Generalization: The process of
defining a more general entity type from
a set of more specialized entity types.
BOTTOM-UP
Specialization: The process of
defining one or more subtypes of the
supertype and forming supertype/subtype
relationships. TOP-DOWN
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Figure 4-4 Example of generalization
a) Three entity types: CAR, TRUCK, and MOTORCYCLE
All these types of vehicles have common attributes
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Figure 4-4 Example of generalization (cont.)
b) Generalization to VEHICLE supertype
So we put
the shared
attributes in
a supertype
Note: no subtype for motorcycle, since it has no unique
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Figure 4-5 Example of specialization
a) Entity type PART
Only applies to
manufactured parts
Applies only to purchased parts
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Figure 4-5 Example of specialization (cont.)
b) Specialization to MANUFACTURED PART and PURCHASED PART
Created 2
subtypes
Note: multivalued attribute was replaced by an
associative entity relationship to another entity
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Constraints in Supertype/
Completeness Constraint
Completeness
Constraints: Whether
an instance of a supertype must also be a
member of at least one subtype
Total Specialization Rule: Yes (double line)
Partial Specialization Rule: No (single line)
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Figure 4-6 Examples of completeness constraints
a) Total specialization rule
A patient must be either
an outpatient or a
resident patient
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Figure 4-6 Examples of completeness constraints (cont.)
b) Partial specialization rule
A vehicle
could be a
car, a truck,
or neither
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Constraints in Supertype/
Disjointness constraint
Disjointness Constraints: Whether
an instance of a supertype may
simultaneously be a member of two (or
more) subtypes
Disjoint Rule: An instance of the supertype
can be only ONE of the subtypes
Overlap Rule: An instance of the supertype
could be more than one of the subtypes
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Figure 4-7 Examples of disjointness constraints
a) Disjoint rule
A patient can either be outpatient
or resident, but not both
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Figure 4-7 Examples of disjointness constraints (cont.)
b) Overlap rule
A part may be both
purchased and
manufactured
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Constraints in Supertype/
Subtype Discriminators
Subtype Discriminator: An attribute
of the supertype whose values determine
the target subtype(s)
Disjoint a simple attribute with alternative
values to indicate the possible subtypes
Overlapping a composite attribute whose
subparts pertain to different subtypes. Each
subpart contains a boolean value to indicate
whether or not the instance belongs to the
associated subtype
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Figure 4-8 Introducing a subtype discriminator (disjoint rule)
A simple attribute with
different possible values
indicating the subtype
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Figure 4-9 Subtype discriminator (overlap rule)
A composite
attribute with
sub-attributes
indicating yes
or no to
determine
whether it is of
each subtype
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Figure 4-10 Example of supertype/subtype hierarchy
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Entity Clusters
EER diagrams are difficult to read when
there are too many entities and
relationships
Solution: Group entities and relationships
into entity clusters
Entity cluster: Set of one or more entity
types and associated relationships
grouped into a single abstract entity type
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Figure 4-13a
Possible entity
clusters for Pine
Valley Furniture in
Microsoft Visio
Related
groups of
entities could
become
clusters
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Figure 4-13b EER diagram of PVF entity clusters
More readable,
isnt it?
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Figure 4-14 Manufacturing entity cluster
Detail for a single cluster
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Packaged data
models provide
generic models
that can be
customized for a
particular
organizations
business rules
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Business rules
Statements that define or constrain some
aspect of the business
Classification of business rules:
Derivationrule derived from other knowledge, often
in the form of a formula using attribute values
Structural assertionrule expressing static structure.
Includes attributes, relationships, and definitions
Action assertionrule expressing constraints/control
of organizational actions
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Figure 4-18
EER diagram
to describe
business
rules
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Types of Action Assertions
Result
Form
ConditionIF/THEN rule
Integrity constraintmust always be true
Authorizationprivilege statement
Enablerleads to creation of new object
Timerallows or disallows an action
Executiveexecutes one or more actions
Rigor
Controllingsomething must or must not happen
Influencingguideline for which a notification
must occur
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Stating an Action Assertion
Anchor Objectan object on which
actions are limited
Actioncreation, deletion, update, or
read
Corresponding Objectsan object
influencing the ability to perform an
action on another business rule
Action assertions identify corresponding objects that
constrain the ability to perform actions on anchor objects
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Figure 4-19 Data model segment for class scheduling
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Figure 4-20 Business Rule 1: For a faculty member to be assigned to
teach a section of a course, the faculty member must be qualified to
teach the course for which that section is scheduled
Corresponding object
In this case, the
action assertion
is a Restriction
Action assertion
Anchor object
Corresponding object
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Figure 4-21 Business Rule 2: For a faculty member to be assigned to
teach a section of a course, the faculty member must not be assigned to
teach a total of more than three course sections
In this case, the
action assertion
is an
Corresponding
object
Upper LIMit
Anchor object
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Action assertion
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