IS 4420 Database Fundamentals Chapter 3: Modeling Data in the Organization Leon Chen
Systems Development Life Cycle
Project Identification and Selection Project Initiation and Planning
Database Development Process
Enterprise modeling
Conceptual data modeling
Analysis
Logical Design Physical Design Implementation Maintenance Logical database design Physical database design and definition Database implementation Database maintenance
2
Overview
What is data modeling Importance of data modeling Business rules Entity-relationship model: entities, relationships, and attributes
Conceptual Data Modeling
Business Rules -Data names -Data definitions Conceptual Data Model (Entity-Relationship Diagram)
Data Modeling is the Most Important
Input for follow-up processes Data rather than processes are the most complex Data tend to be more stable than business processes
Business Rules
Statements that define or constrain some aspect of the business. For example:
Friday is business casual dress day Students can only register a course if prerequisite is successfully completed
Automated through DBMS software
Entity-Relationship Model
A logical representation of the data for an organization or for a business area 3 constructs:
STUDENT
Name Registers
Entity - person, place, object, event, concept (often corresponds to a row in a table) Attribute - property or characteristic of an entity (often corresponds to a field in a table) Relationship link between entities (corresponds to primary key-foreign key equivalencies in related tables) Type vs. instance
Entity-Relationship Diagram
Entity type: Instructor Entity instance: Leon Chen
A graphical representation of entity-relationship model Also called E-R diagram or just ERD
7
Sample E-R Diagram (Figure 3-1)
Attribute
Supplier_ID Supplier_Name
Supplier_Address
Relationship symbols Attribute symbols Entity symbols
A special entity that is also a relationship
Relationship degrees specify number of entity types involved
Relationship cardinalities specify how many of each entity type is allowed
Entity
Person: EMPLOYEE, STUDENT Place: WAREHOUSE, COUNTRY Object: BUILDING, MACHINE Event: SALE, REGISTRATION Concept: ACCOUNT, COURSE
EMPLOYEE DEPENDENT
CERTIFICATE Associative entity
10
Strong entity
Weak entity
What Should an Entity Be?
SHOULD BE:
An object that will have many instances in the database An object that will be composed of multiple attributes An object that we are trying to model
SHOULD NOT BE:
A user of the database system An output of the database system (e.g. a report)
11
Figure 3-4
Inappropriate entities
System user
System output
Appropriate entities
12
Attribute
Attribute - property or characteristic of an entity type Classifications of attributes:
Required vs. Optional Attributes Simple vs. Composite Attribute Single-Valued vs. Multivalued Attribute Stored vs. Derived Attributes Identifier Attributes - keys
13
Required vs. Optional Attributes
Example: entity ONLINE_ACCOUNT
Required attributes (Not NULL)
Account_ID Password Owner_Name
Optional attributes
Phone_Number Password_Hint
14
Figure 3-7 A composite attribute
An attribute broken into component parts
15
Figure 3-8 Entity with a multivalued attribute (Skill) and derived attribute (Years_Employed)
Derived
from date employed and current date
Multivalued:
an employee can have more than one skill
16
Figure 3-19 An attribute that is both multivalued and composite
This is an example of time-stamping. More examples?
17
Identifiers (Keys)
Identifier (Key) - An attribute (or combination of attributes) that uniquely identifies individual instances of an entity type Candidate Key an attribute that could be a key. Examples (for STUDENT, PERSON)? Simple Key versus Composite Key
18
Figure 3-9a Simple key attribute
The key is underlined
19
Figure 3-9b Composite key attribute
Flight_Number
Date
20
Guidelines for Identifiers
Will not change in value Will not be null Substitute new, simple keys for long, composite keys
? Game_Number
21
Relationship
Relationship Type vs. Relationship Instance Degree of a relationship Cardinality of a relationship Associative Entity combination of relationship and entity
22
Figure 3-11a
attribute of the relationship
The relationship type is modeled as the diamond and lines between entity types
23
Relationship Instance is between
specific entity instances
24
Degree of a relationship is the number of entity types that participate in it
One entity related to another of the same entity type
Entities of two different types related to each other
Entities of three different types related to each other
25
Cardinality of a Relationship
One-to-One
Each entity in the relationship will have exactly one related entity
One-to-Many
An entity on one side of the relationship can have many related entities, but an entity on the other side will have a maximum of one related entity
Entities on both sides of the relationship can have many related entities on the other side
26
Many-to-Many
27
28
Note: a relationship can have attributes of its own
29
Cardinality Constraints
Cardinality Constraints - the number of instances of one entity that can or must be associated with each instance of another entity Minimum Cardinality. Examples?
If zero, then optional If one or more, then mandatory
The maximum number
Maximum Cardinality. Examples?
30
Cardinalities
Mandatory one Mandatory many Optional one Optional many
18 11
31
Figure 3-16a Basic relationship
Mandatory minimum cardinalities Figure 3-17a
32
Figure 3-17c Optional cardinalities with unary degree, one-to-one relationship
33
Maximum Cardinality Constraint
max cardinality constraint
34
Entities can be related to one another in more than one way
35
Attributes or Relationship?
Attributes can be transformed to relationships
36
Attributes or Relationship?
Attributes should be transformed to relationships
37
Associative Entities
Its an
entity
it has attributes it links entities together
AND its a
relationship
relationship with attributes be an associative entity?
When should a
All relationships for the associative entity should be many The associative entity could have meaning independent of the other entities The associative entity should have at least one or more
attributes other than the identifier The associative entity may participate in other relationships
other than the entities of the associated relationship Ternary relationships should be converted to associative entities
38
Figure 3-11b An associative entity (CERTIFICATE)
39
Bill of materials structure
40
Figure 3-18 Ternary relationship as an associative entity
41
Strong vs. Weak Entities
Strong entities
exist independently of other types of entities has its own unique identifier represented with single-line rectangle
dependent on a strong entitycannot exist on its own does not have a unique identifier represented with double-line rectangle links strong entities to weak entities represented with double line diamond
42
Weak entity
Identifying relationship
Strong entity
Identifying relationship
Weak entity
43
Figure 3-22a E-R diagram for Pine Valley Furniture
44
Microsoft Visio Notation for Pine Valley Furniture
Different modeling software tools may have different notation for the same constructs
45
Relationship symbols Attribute symbols Entity symbols
A special entity that is also a relationship
Relationship degrees specify number of entity types involved
Relationship cardinalities specify how many of each entity type is allowed
46
Sample E-R Diagram (Figure 3-1)
Attribute
Supplier_ID Supplier_Name
Supplier_Address
47
