Entity Relationship Model

In this tutorial, you will learn-

• What is the ER Model?
• History of ER models
• What is ER Diagrams?
• Why use ER Diagrams?
• Components of ER Diagram
• Relationship
• Weak Entities
• Attributes
• Cardinality
• ER- Diagram Notations
• Steps to Create an ERD
• Best Practices for Developing Effective ER Diagrams
 Data Modelling

• Data modelling is a technique to document a

software system using diagrams and symbols. It
is used to represent communication of data.
• The highest level of abstraction for the data
model is called the Entity Relationship Diagram
(ERD). It is a graphical representation of data
requirements for a database
 What is the ER Model?

• ENTITY RELATIONAL (ER) MODEL is a high-level

conceptual data model diagram. ER modelling
helps you to analyze data requirements
systematically to produce a well-designed
database.
• The Entity-Relation model represents real-world
entities and the relationship between them. It is
considered a best practice to complete ER
modeling before implementing your
database.
 History of ER models

• ER diagrams are a visual tool which is helpful

to represent the ER model. It was proposed
by Peter Chen in 1971 to create a uniform
convention which can be used for relational
database and network. He aimed to use an
ER model as a conceptual modeling
approach.
 What is ER Diagrams?

• ENTITY-RELATIONSHIP DIAGRAM (ERD) displays

the relationships of entity set stored in a database.
In other words, we can say that ER diagrams help
you to explain the logical structure of databases.
• At first look, an ER diagram looks very similar to
the flowchart. However, ER Diagram includes
many specialized symbols, and its meanings make
this model unique. The purpose of ER Diagram is
to represent the entity framework infrastructure.
What is ER Diagrams?

Sample ER Diagram
 Facts about ER Diagram Model:
• ER model allows you to draw Database Design
• It is an easy to use graphical tool for modeling
data
• Widely used in Database Design
• It is a GUI representation of the logical structure
of a Database
• It helps you to identifies the entities which exist
in a system and the relationships between those
entities
 Why use ER Diagrams?

Here, are prime reasons for using the ER Diagram

• Helps you to define terms related to entity relationship modeling
• Provide a preview of how all your tables should connect, what fields
are going to be on each table
• Helps to describe entities, attributes, relationships
• ER diagrams are translatable into relational tables which allows you
to build databases quickly
• ER diagrams can be used by database designers as a blueprint for
implementing data in specific software applications
• The database designer gains a better understanding of the
information to be contained in the database with the help of ERP
diagram
• ERD is allowed you to communicate with the logical structure of the
database to users
 Components of the ER Diagram

This model is based on three basic concepts:

• Entities
• Attributes
• Relationships
 Example
• For example, in a University database, we
might have entities for Students, Courses,
and Lecturers. Students entity can have
attributes like Rollno, Name, and DeptID.
They might have relationships with Courses
and Lecturers.
Example
 WHAT IS ENTITY?

• A real-world thing either living or non-living that is

easily recognizable and nonrecognizable. It is anything
in the enterprise that is to be represented in our
database. It may be a physical thing or simply a fact
about the enterprise or an event that happens in the
real world.
• An entity can be place, person, object, event or a
concept, which stores data in the database. The
characteristics of entities are must have an attribute,
and a unique key. Every entity is made up of some
'attributes' which represent that entity.
 Examples of entities:
• Person: Employee, Student, Patient
• Place: Store, Building
• Object: Machine, product, and Car
• Event: Sale, Registration, Renewal
• Concept: Account, Course
 Notation of an Entity
Entity set:
• Student
• An entity set is a group of similar kind of entities. It
may contain entities with attribute sharing similar
values. Entities are represented by their properties,
which also called attributes. All attributes have their
separate values. For example, a student entity may
have a name, age, class, as attributes.
 Example of Entities:
• A university may have some departments. All
these departments employ various lecturers
and offer several programs.
• Some courses make up each program.
Students register in a particular program and
enroll in various courses. A lecturer from the
specific department takes each course, and
each lecturer teaches a various group of
students.
 Relationship

• Relationship is nothing but an association among

two or more entities. E.g., Tom works in the
Chemistry department.

• Entities take part in relationships. We can often

identify relationships with verbs or verb phrases.
 Attributes

• It is a single-valued property of either an

entity-type or a relationship-type.
• For example, a lecture might have attributes:
time, date, duration, place, etc.
• An attribute is represented by an Ellipse
Types of Attributes Description

Simple attribute Simple attributes can't be divided any further. For

example, a student's contact number. It is also called
an atomic value.

Composite attribute It is possible to break down composite attribute. For

example, a student's full name may be further divided
into first name, second name, and last name.

Multivalued attribute Multivalued attributes can have more than one values.
For example, a student can have more than one mobile
number, email address, etc.
 Cardinality
• Defines the numerical attributes of the
relationship between two entities or entity
sets.
• Different types of cardinal relationships are:
• One-to-One Relationships
• One-to-Many Relationships
• May to One Relationships
• Many-to-Many Relationships
 1.One-to-one:
• One entity from entity set X can be associated
with at most one entity of entity set Y and
vice versa.
• Example: One student can register for
numerous courses. However, all those
courses have a single line back to that one
student.
 2.One-to-many:
• One entity from entity set X can be associated
with multiple entities of entity set Y, but an
entity from entity set Y can be associated
with at least one entity.
• For example, one class is consisting of
multiple students.
 3. Many to One
• More than one entity from entity set X can be
associated with at most one entity of entity
set Y. However, an entity from entity set Y
may or may not be associated with more
than one entity from entity set X.
• For example, many students belong to the
same class.
 4. Many to Many:
• One entity from X can be associated with
more than one entity from Y and vice versa.
• For example, Students as a group are
associated with multiple faculty members, and
faculty members can be associated with
multiple students.
 ER- Diagram Notations

• ER- Diagram is a visual representation of data that

describe how data is related to each other.

• Rectangles: This symbol represent entity types

• Ellipses : Symbol represent attributes
• Diamonds: This symbol represents relationship types
• Lines: It links attributes to entity types and entity
types with other relationship types
• Primary key: attributes are underlined
• Double Ellipses: Represent multi-valued attributes
 Steps to Create an ERD

• Following are the steps to create an ERD.

Let's study them with an example:

In a university, a Student enrolls in Courses. A student

must be assigned to at least one or more Courses. Each
In a university, a Student enrolls in Courses. A student
must be assigned to at least one or more Courses. Each
course is taught by a single Professor. To maintain
instruction quality, a Professor can deliver only one
course course is taught by a single Professor. To
maintain instruction quality, a Professor can deliver only
one course
 Step 1) Entity Identification

• We have three entities

• Student
• Course
• Professor
 Step 2) Relationship Identification

• We have the following two relationships

• The student is assigned a course
• Professor delivers a course
 Step 3) Cardinality Identification

• For them problem statement we know that,

• A student can be assigned multiple courses
• A Professor can deliver only one course
 Step 4) Identify Attributes

• You need to study the files, forms, reports, data

currently maintained by the organization to identify
attributes. You can also conduct interviews with various
stakeholders to identify entities. Initially, it's important
to identify the attributes without mapping them to a
particular entity.
• Once, you have a list of Attributes, you need to map
them to the identified entities. Ensure an attribute is to
be paired with exactly one entity. If you think an
attribute should belong to more than one entity, use a
modifier to make it unique.
• Once the mapping is done, identify the
primary Keys. If a unique key is not readily
available, create one.
Entity Primary Key Attribute

Student Student_ID StudentName

Professor Employee_ID ProfessorName

Course Course_ID CourseName

For Course Entity, attributes could be Duration, Credits,
Assignments, etc. For the sake of ease we have
considered just one attribute.
 Step 5) Create the ERD

• A more modern representation of ERD

Diagram
 Best Practices for Developing Effective ER Diagrams

• Eliminate any redundant entities or relationships

• You need to make sure that all your entities and
relationships are properly labeled
• There may be various valid approaches to an ER
diagram. You need to make sure that the ER diagram
supports all the data you need to store
• You should assure that each entity only appears a
single time in the ER diagram
• Name every relationship, entity, and attribute are
represented on your diagram
• Never connect relationships to each other
 Summary

• The ER model is a high-level data model diagram

• ER diagrams are a visual tool which is helpful to represent
the ER model
• Entity relationship diagram displays the relationships of
entity set stored in a database
• ER diagrams help you to define terms related to entity
relationship modeling
• ER model is based on three basic concepts: Entities,
Attributes & Relationships
• An entity can be place, person, object, event or a concept,
which stores data in the database