DBMS

Entity Relationship (E-R)

Model
The Entity Relationship (E-R) Model
 E-R Model Components
 Entities
 In E-R models an entity refers to the entity set.
 An entity is represented by a rectangle containing the
entity’s name.
 Attributes
 Attributes are represented by ovals and are connected to
the entity with a line.
 Each oval contains the name of the attribute it represents.
 Attributes have a domain -- the attribute’s set of possible
values.
 Attributes may share a domain.
 Primary keys are underlined.
 Relationships
The Attributes of the STUDENT Entity
Basic E-R Model Entity Presentation
The Entity Relationship (E-R) Model
 Classes of Attributes
 A simple attribute cannot be subdivided.
 Examples: Age, Sex, and Marital status
 A composite attribute can be further subdivided
to yield additional attributes.
 Examples:
– ADDRESS Street, City, State, Zip
– PHONE NUMBER  Area code, Exchange
number
The Entity Relationship (E-R) Model
 Classes of Attributes
 A single-valued attribute can have only a single value.
 Examples:
– A person can have only one social security number.
– A manufactured part can have only one serial
number.
 Multivalued attributes can have many values.
 Examples:
– A person may have several college degrees.
– A household may have several phones with different
numbers
 Multivalued attributes are shown by a double line
connecting to the entity.
The Entity Relationship (E-R) Model
 Multivalued Attribute in Relational DBMS
 The relational DBMS cannot implement multivalued
attributes.
 Possible courses of action for the designer
 Within the original entity, create several new attributes,
one for each of the original multivalued attribute’s
components.
 Create a new entity composed of the original multivalued
attribute’s components
Splitting the Multivalued Attributes into New Attributes
A New Entity Set Composed of Multivalued
Attribute’s Components
The Entity Relationship (E-R) Model
 A derived attribute is not physically stored within the
database; instead, it is derived by using an algorithm.
 Example: AGE can be derived from the data of birth and
the current date.

Figure: A Derived Attribute

The Entity Relationship (E-R) Model
 Relationships
 A relationship is an association between entities.
 Relationships are represented by diamond-shaped
symbols.

Figure :An Entity Relationship

The Entity Relationship (E-R) Model
 A relationship’s degree indicates the number of associated
entities or participants.
 A unary relationship exists when an association is maintained
within a single entity.
 A binary relationship exists when two entities are associated.
 A ternary relationship exists when three entities are associated.
The Entity Relationship (E-R) Model
 Connectivity
 The term connectivity is used to describe the
relationship classification (e.g., one-to-one, one-to-
many, and many-to-many).

Figure :Connectivity in an ERD

The Entity Relationship (E-R) Model
 Cardinality
 Cardinality expresses the specific number of entity
occurrences associated with one occurrence of the
related entity.

Figure :Cardinality in an ERD

The Entity Relationship (E-R) Model
 Relationship Participation
 The participation is optional if one entity occurrence
does not require a corresponding entity occurrence in a
particular relationship.
 An optional entity is shown by a small circle on the side
of the optional entity.

Figure : An ERD With An Optional Entity

Figure : CLASS is Optional to COURSE

Figure : COURSE and CLASS in a Mandatory Relationship

The Entity Relationship (E-R) Model
 Weak Entities
 A weak entity is an entity that
 Is existence-dependent and
 Has a primary key that is partially or totally derived
from the parent entity in the relationship.
 The existence of a weak entity is indicated by a
double rectangle.
 The weak entity inherits all or part of its primary
key from its strong counterpart.
A Weak Entity in an ERD
 The Entity Relationship (E-R) Model
 Recursive Entities
 A recursive entity is one in which a relationship can
exist between occurrences of the same entity set.
 A recursive entity is found within a unary relationship.

Figure : An E-R Representation of Recursive Relationships

The Entity Relationship (E-R) Model
 Composite Entities
 A composite entity is composed of the primary
keys of each of the entities to be connected.
 The composite entity serves as a bridge between
the related entities.
 The composite entity may contain additional
attributes.
The M:N Relationship Between STUDENT and CLASS
A Composite Entity in the ERD
 Developing an E-R Diagram
 The process of database design is an iterative rather
than a linear or sequential process.

 It usually begins with a general narrative of the

organization’s operations and procedures.

 The basic E-R model is graphically depicted and

presented for review.

 The process is repeated until the end users and

designers agree that the E-R diagram is a fair
representation of the organization’s activities and
functions.
 Developing an E-R Diagram
 B.D. College Database (1)
 College is divided into several schools. Each
school is administered by a dean. A 1:1
relationship exists between DEAN and SCHOOL.
 Each dean is a member of a group of
administrators (ADMINISTRATOR). Deans also
hold professorial rank and may teach a class
(PROFESSOR). Administrators and professors are
also Employees.
 Developing an E-R Diagram
 B.D. College Database (2)
 Each school is composed of several departments.
 The smallest number of departments operated by a
school is one, and the largest number of departments
is indeterminate (N).
 Each department belongs to only a single school.

Figure : The First B.D. College ERD Segment

 Developing an E-R Diagram
 B.D. College Database (3)
 Each department offers several courses.

Figure : The Second B.D. College ERD Segment

 Developing an E-R Diagram
 B.D. College Database (4)
 A department may offer several sections (classes) of
the same course.
 A 1:M relationship exists between COURSE and CLASS.
 CLASS is optional to COURSE

Figure : The Third B.D. College ERD Segment

 Developing an E-R Diagram
 B.D. College Database (5)
 Each department has many professors assigned to it.
 One of those professors chairs the department. Only
one of the professors can chair the department.
 DEPARTMENT is optional to PROFESSOR in the
“chairs” relationship.

Figure : The Fourth B.D. College ERD Segment

 Developing an E-R Diagram
 B.D. College Database (6)
 Each professor may teach up to four classes,
each one a section of a course.
 A professor may also be on a research contract
and teach no classes.

Figure : The Fifth B.D. College ERD Segment

 Developing an E-R Diagram
 B.D. College Database (7)
 A student may enroll in several classes, but (s)he takes
each class only once during any given enrollment
period.
 Each student may enroll in up to six classes and each
class may have up to 35 students in it.
 STUDENT is optional to CLASS.

Figure : The Sixth B.D. College ERD Segment

 Developing an E-R Diagram
 B.D. College Database (8)
 Each department has several students whose major is
offered by that department.
 Each student has only a single major and associated
with a single department.

Figure : The Seventh B.D. College ERD Segment

 Developing an E-R Diagram
 B.D. College Database (9)
 Each student has an advisor in his or her department;
each advisor counsels several students.
 An advisor is also a professor, but not all professors
advise students.

Figure : The Eighth B.D. College ERD Segment

Developing an E-R Diagram
Entities for the B.D. College Database
 SCHOOL  COURSE
 DEPARMENT  CLASS
 EMPLOYEE  ENROLL (Bridge between
STUDENT and CLASS)
 PROFESSOR
 STUDENT
Components of the E-R Model
Extended E-R Features: Specialization

 Top-down design process; we designate subgroupings

within an entity set that are distinctive from other
entities in the set.
 These subgroupings become lower-level entity sets
that have attributes or participate in relationships that
do not apply to the higher-level entity set.
 Depicted by a triangle component labeled ISA (E.g.
customer “is a” person).
 Attribute inheritance – a lower-level entity set inherits
all the attributes and relationship participation of the
higher-level entity set to which it is linked.
Specialization Example
 Extended ER Features: Generalization

 A bottom-up design process – combine a number of

entity sets that share the same features into a higher-
level entity set.
 Specialization and generalization are simple inversions
of each other; they are represented in an E-R diagram
in the same way.
 The terms specialization and generalization are used
interchangeably.
Specialization and Generalization (Cont.)

 Can have multiple specializations of an entity set

based on different features.
 E.g. permanent_employee vs. temporary_employee, in
addition to officer vs. secretary vs. teller
 Each particular employee would be
 a member of one of
permanent_employee or
temporary_employee,
 and also a member of one of officer,
secretary, or teller
 The ISA relationship also referred to as superclass -
subclass relationship
 Aggregation

 Consider the ternary relationship works_on

 Suppose we want to record managers for tasks performed by an

employee at a branch
 Aggregation (Cont.)
 Relationship sets works_on and manages represent
overlapping information
 Every manages relationship corresponds to a works_on
relationship
 However, some works_on relationships may not correspond to
any manages relationships
 So we can’t discard the works_on relationship

 Eliminate this redundancy via aggregation

 Treat relationship as an abstract entity
 Allows relationships between relationships
 Abstraction of relationship into new entity
 Without introducing redundancy, the following diagram
represents:
 An employee works on a particular job at a particular branch
 An employee, branch, job combination may have an
associated manager
E-R Diagram With Aggregation
Summary of Symbols Used in E-R Notation