Example COMPANY Database We need to create a database schema design based on the following (simplified) requirements of the COMPANY Database: The company is organized into DEPARTMENTs. Each department has a name, number and an employee who manages the department. We keep track of the start date of the department manager. A department may have several locations. Each department controls a number of PROJECTs. Each project has a unique name, unique number and is located at a single location.
Example COMPANY Database (Continued) The database will store each EMPLOYEE’s social security number, address, salary, sex, and birthdate. Each employee works for one department but may work on several projects. The DB will keep track of the number of hours per week that an employee currently works on each project. It is required to keep track of the direct supervisor of each employee. Each employee may have a number of DEPENDENTs. For each dependent, the DB keeps a record of name, sex, birthdate, and relationship to the employee.
ER Model Concepts Entities and Attributes Entity is a basic concept for the ER model. Entities are specific things or objects in the mini-world that are represented in the database. For example the EMPLOYEE John Smith, the Research DEPARTMENT, the ProductX PROJECT Attributes are properties used to describe an entity. For example an EMPLOYEE entity may have the attributes Name, SSN, Address, Sex, BirthDate A specific entity will have a value for each of its attributes. For example a specific employee entity may have Name='John Smith', SSN='123456789', Address ='731, Fondren, Houston, TX', Sex='M', BirthDate='09-JAN-55‘ Each attribute has a value set (or data type) associated with it – e.g. integer, string, date, enumerated type, …
Types of Attributes (1) Simple Each entity has a single atomic value for the attribute. For example, SSN or Sex. Composite The attribute may be composed of several components. For example: Address(Apt#, House#, Street, City, State, ZipCode, Country), or Name(FirstName, MiddleName, LastName). Composition may form a hierarchy where some components are themselves composite. Multi-valued An entity may have multiple values for that attribute. For example, Color of a CAR or PreviousDegrees of a STUDENT. Denoted as {Color} or {PreviousDegrees}.
Entity Types and Key Attributes (1) Entities with the same basic attributes are grouped or typed into an entity type. For example, the entity type EMPLOYEE and PROJECT. An attribute of an entity type for which each entity must have a unique value is called a key attribute of the entity type. For example, SSN of EMPLOYEE.
Refining the initial design by introducing relationships The initial design is typically not complete Some aspects in the requirements will be represented as relationships ER model has three main concepts: Entities (and their entity types and entity sets) Attributes (simple, composite, multivalued) Relationships (and their relationship types and relationship sets) We introduce relationship concepts next
Relationships and Relationship Types (1) A relationship relates two or more distinct entities with a specific meaning. For example, EMPLOYEE John Smith works on the ProductX PROJECT, or EMPLOYEE Franklin Wong manages the Research DEPARTMENT. Relationships of the same type are grouped or typed into a relationship type. For example, the WORKS_ON relationship type in which EMPLOYEEs and PROJECTs participate, or the MANAGES relationship type in which EMPLOYEEs and DEPARTMENTs participate. The degree of a relationship type is the number of participating entity types. Both MANAGES and WORKS_ON are binary relationships.
Constraints on Relationships Constraints on Relationship Types (Also known as ratio constraints) Cardinality Ratio (specifies maximum participation) One-to-one (1:1) One-to-many (1:N) or Many-to-one (N:1) Many-to-many (M:N) Existence Dependency Constraint (specifies minimum participation) (also called participation constraint) zero (optional participation, not existence-dependent) one or more (mandatory participation, existence-dependent)
UML diagrams (ER, Conceptual, Physical) Represent classes (similar to entity types) as large rounded boxes with three sections: Top section includes entity type (class) name Second section includes attributes Third section includes class operations (operations are not in basic ER model) Relationships (called associations) represented as lines connecting the classes Other UML terminology also differs from ER terminology Used in database design and object-oriented software design UML has many other types of diagrams for software design
Conceptual Diagrams The conceptual data model is the very first and the most abstract data model in the data modeling process. It is a high-level diagram that use to define, describe, organize, and present data elements and their relationships with relatively few details.