lOMoARcPSD|50004020

Unit-I - Database Management System

Database Management System (Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Technical University)

Scan to open on Studocu

Studocu is not sponsored or endorsed by any college or university

Downloaded by Deepansh Sharma ([email protected])
 lOMoARcPSD|50004020

UNIT-1
Introduction: An overview of database management system, database system Vs file system, Database system
concept and architecture, data model schema and instances, data independence and database language and
interfaces, data definitions language, DML, Overall Database Structure.

Data modeling using the Entity Relationship Model:

ER model concepts, notation for ER diagram, mapping constraints, keys, Concepts of Super Key, candidate key, primary
key, Generalization, aggregation, reduction of an ER diagrams to tables, extended ER model, relationship of higher
degree.

Database
 A database is a collection of related data.
 By data, we mean known facts that can be recorded and that have implicit meaning.
 It is a collection of data in organised manner in a persistence media so that storing and retrieving data will be
easier.
 size of the data is not fixed and it can vary
 A database can be generated and maintained manually or by computer
Example -dictionary, telephone directory, library card catalogue etc.

Database Management system (DBMS)

 DBMS it is a collection of program (software) which is used to create, manipulate (insert, retrieve, delete,
update) data in a database.
 It also facilities the process of defining, constructing, manipulating and sharing database among various uses
and applications.
 DBMS is a 4th generation language.
Example –Oracle, SQL server, MS Access etc.

Application of database system

 Banking: For customer information accounts loan transaction etc.
 Airlines: For reservation and schedule information.
 Universities: for student information examination information department information etc.
 Credit Card Transactions: For purchase through credit card and generation of monthly statement.

1|Page PRAMOD KUMAR (ASST.PROF.)

Downloaded by Deepansh Sharma ([email protected])

 lOMoARcPSD|50004020

 Telecommunication: Keeping record of calls made monthly bills, storing information about bills storing
information about communication network etc.
 Finance: Storing information about sales and purchase of shares, stocks, bonds etc.
 Human Resource: Storing information about employees, salaries, benefits etc.
 Internet: Storing user id password etc. in a mailing system.

Database Systems vs. File System or Disadvantage of File Systems

Data Redundancy: Same information may be duplicated in several files. For example, the information of a particular
customer may appear in two different files and storing savings account records and another storing loan account
records in database oriented approach duplicate records are avoided because their relationship is used

Data Inconsistency: Data redundancy main lead to data inconsistency. For example, any change to record of one file
will not affect the record of other files in database oriented approach no redundancy of data so no change of data
inconsistency.

Difficult in Accessing Data: Conventional file processing environment do not allow needed data to be retrieved in a
convenient and efficient manner. For example, to find out the list of customers who live in a particular area we have
to search in multiple file separately.

Database system can handle any type of queries and produce the required information conveniently

Data Isolation: Data are scattered in various files and format of these data may be different, so retrieving the
appropriate data is difficult.

In database system data are stored in one place. So data will be accessed in a faster manner.

Data Integrity Problems: Data are stored in different places in different formats. So while combing to get the required
Data integrity(uniformity) problems are created. In database system as relationship is used there is no change of data
integrity problem

Atomicity Problems: In case of system failure, data should be stored to the consistent state that existed prior to the
failure. This is called atomicity it is difficult to ensure atomicity in file oriented approach. In database system, atomicity
can be ensured easily by writing codes for that.

Concurrent Access Anomalies: When multiple users access the same data simultaneously then there is a chance of
data inconsistency. In database system, the system guard against this possibility by some form of supervision

Security: No security in file oriented of approach. Any user can access all data.

In database oriented approach access restricted data available for certain group only

Standards: No standard is maintained in file oriented approach.

In database oriented approach valid data are stored only.

View of Data
To retrieve data efficiently Complex data structure are used to represent the data in the database. As the users don’t
understand the detail about the system. Developers hides the complexity from users through the following level of
abstraction.

 Physical Level / Internal Level: It is the lowest level of abstraction which describe how the data are actually
stored (physical storage structure) and describe the data structures and access method to be used by the
database.

 Logical Level / Conceptual Level: It is the next level of abstraction which specifies What data are stored in the
database and what relationship exists among those data. To decide what information to keep in the database.
DBA uses the logical level of abstraction.

2|Page PRAMOD KUMAR (ASST.PROF.)

Downloaded by Deepansh Sharma ([email protected])

 lOMoARcPSD|50004020

 View Level / External Level: This is the highest level of abstraction which describe part of the entire database
of interest to a particular user group. The view level of abstraction exists to simplify their interaction with the
system. The system may provide many viewers for the same database.

Example: Employee Database

Physical Level / Internal Level: At this level employee record can be described as a block of consecutive storage
locations consisting of how much byte.

Logical Level / Conceptual Level: At this level each record is described by type definition and the in interrelationship
of these record types is also defined.

View Level / External Level: At this level the users see a set of application programs which hides detail of data types.
The user is allowed to access certain part of the database not the entire database.

Instances
 Databases change over time as information is inserted and deleted.
 The collection of information stored in the database at a particular moment is called an instance of the
database.
 Instances of database are changed frequently with time.

Schemas
 The overall design or description of the database is called the database schema.
 Schemas are changed infrequently with time.

The concept of database schemas and instances can be understood by analogy to a program written in a programming
language.

 A database schema corresponds to the variable declarations in a program.

 Each variable has a particular value at a given instant.
 The values of the variables in a program at a point in time correspond to an instance of a database schema.

Data Independence
Data independence can be defined as the capacity to change the schema at one level of a database system without
having to change the schema at the next higher level. We can define two types of data independence:

1. Logical data independence is the capacity to change the conceptual schema without having to change external
schemas or application programs.

Example: addition of records or data items, changing constraints, removing records or data items etc.

3|Page PRAMOD KUMAR (ASST.PROF.)

Downloaded by Deepansh Sharma ([email protected])

 lOMoARcPSD|50004020

2. Physical data independence is the capacity to change the internal schema without having to change the conceptual
schema. The external schemas need not be changed as well. Changes to the internal schema may be needed because
some physical files were reorganized.

Example: by creating additional access structures—to improve the performance of retrieval or update.

Data Models
 A collection of conceptual tools for describing data, data relationships, data semantics, and consistency
constraints.
 A data model provides a way to describe the design of a database at the physical, logical, and view levels.
The data models can be classified into four different categories:
1. Relational Model.
 The relational model uses a collection of tables to represent both data and the relationships among those data.
 Each table has multiple columns, and each column has a unique name.
 Tables are also known as relations.
 Each table contains records of a particular type.
 Each record type defines a fixed number of fields, or attributes (column).
 The columns of the table correspond to the attributes of the record type.
 The relational data model is the most widely used data model, and a vast majority of current database systems
are based on the relational model.
2. Entity-Relationship Model.
 The entity-relationship (E-R) data model uses a collection of basic objects, called entities, and relationships
among these objects.
 An entity is a “thing” or “object” in the real world that is distinguishable from other objects.
 The entity-relationship model is widely used in database design.
3. Object-Based Data Model.
 Object-oriented programming (especially in Java, C++, or C#) has become the dominant software-development
methodology.
 This led to the development of an object-oriented data model that can be seen as extending the E-R model with
notions of encapsulation, methods (functions), and object identity.
 The object-relational data model combines features of the object-oriented data model and relational data model.
.
4. Semistructured Data Model.
 The Semistructured data model permits the specification of data where individual data items of the same
type may have different sets of attributes.
 The Extensible Markup Language (XML) is widely used to represent Semistructured data.
Database Languages

 A database system provides a data-definition language to specify the database schema and
 A data-manipulation language to express database queries and updates.
 In practice, the data-definition and data-manipulation languages are not two separate languages; instead they
simply form parts of a single database language, such as the widely used SQL language.

Data-Manipulation Language

 A data-manipulation language (DML) is a language that enables users to access or manipulate data as
organized by the appropriate data model.
 The types of access are:
o Retrieval of information stored in the database
o Insertion of new information into the database
o Deletion of information from the database
o Modification of information stored in the database
There are basically two types:
 Procedural DMLs require a user to specify what data are needed and how to get those data.
 Declarative DMLs (also referred to as nonprocedural DMLs) require a user to specify what data are needed
without specifying how to get those data. Declarative DMLs are usually easier to learn and use than are
procedural DMLs.

4|Page PRAMOD KUMAR (ASST.PROF.)

Downloaded by Deepansh Sharma ([email protected])

 lOMoARcPSD|50004020

A query is a statement requesting the retrieval of information. The portion of a DML that involves information retrieval is
called a query language.

Data-Definition Language

 We specify a database schema by a set of definitions expressed by a special language called a data-definition
language (DDL).
 The DDL is also used to specify additional properties of the data.
 We specify the storage structure and access methods used by the database system by a set of statements in a
special type of DDL called a data storage and definition language.
 The data values stored in the database must satisfy certain consistency constraints.

Database Users

There are four different types of database-system users, differentiated by the way they expect to interact with the system.
1. Naive users are unsophisticated users who interact with the system by invoking one of the application programs that
have been written previously. For example, a clerk in the university who needs to add a new instructor to department.
2. Application programmers are computer professionals who write application programs. Application programmers
can choose from many tools to develop user interfaces. Rapid application development (RAD) tools are tools that
enable an application programmer to construct forms and reports with minimal programming effort.
3. Sophisticated users interact with the system without writing programs. Instead, they form their requests either using
a database query language or by using tools such as data analysis software. Analysts who submit queries to explore
data in the database fall in this category.
4. Specialized users are sophisticated users who write specialized database applications that do not fit into the
traditional data-processing framework. Among these applications are computer-aided design systems,
knowledgebase and expert systems, systems that store data with complex data types (for example, graphics data and
audio data).

DBMS Interfaces

User-friendly interfaces provided by a DBMS may include the following:

Menu-based Interfaces for Web Clients or Browsing
 These interfaces present the user with lists of options (called menus) that lead the user through the formulation
of a request.
 Menus do away with the need to memorize the specific commands and syntax of a query language.
 Pull-down menus are a very popular technique in Web-based user interfaces. They are also often used in
browsing interfaces, which allow a user to look through the contents of a database in an exploratory and
unstructured manner.
Apps for Mobile Devices
 These interfaces present mobile users with access to their data. For example, banking, reservations, and insurance
companies, among many others, provide apps that allow users to access their data through a mobile phone or
mobile device.
 The apps have built-in programmed interfaces that typically allow users to login using their account name and
password; the apps then provide a limited menu of options for mobile access to the user data, as well as options
such as paying bills (for banks) or making reservations (for reservation Web sites).
Forms-based Interfaces
 A forms-based interface displays a form to each user.
 Users can fill out all of the form entries to insert new data, or they can fill out only certain entries, in which case
the DBMS will retrieve matching data for the remaining entries.
 Forms are usually designed and programmed for naive users as interfaces to canned transactions.
 Many DBMSs have forms specification languages, which are special languages that help programmers specify
such forms.
Example: Oracle Forms, SQL*Forms etc.
Graphical User Interfaces
 A GUI typically displays a schema to the user in diagrammatic form.
 The user then can specify a query by manipulating the diagram.
 In many cases, GUIs utilize both menus and forms.

Natural Language Interfaces

5|Page PRAMOD KUMAR (ASST.PROF.)

Downloaded by Deepansh Sharma ([email protected])

 lOMoARcPSD|50004020

 These interfaces accept requests written in English or some other language and attempt to understand them. A
natural language interface usually has its own schema, which is similar to the database conceptual schema, as
well as a dictionary of important words.
 The natural language interface refers to the words in its schema, as well as to the set of standard words in its
dictionary, that are used to interpret the request.

Interfaces for the DBA

 Most database systems contain privileged commands that can be used only by the DBA staff.
 These include commands for creating accounts, setting system parameters, granting account authorization,
changing a schema, and reorganizing the storage structures of a database.

Overall Database Structure

A database system is partitioned into modules that deal with each of the responsibilities of the overall system. The functional
components of a database system can be broadly divided into the storage manager and the query processor components.
 Storage Manager
 Query Processor

Storage Manager

 The storage manager is the component of a database system that provides the interface between the low-level
data stored in the database and the application programs.
 The storage manager is responsible for the interaction with the file manager.
 The raw data are stored on the disk using the file system provided by the operating system.
 The storage manager translates the various DML statements into low-level file-system commands.
The storage manager components include:
 Authorization and Integrity Manager, which tests for the satisfaction of integrity constraints and checks the
authority of users to access data.
 Transaction Manager, which ensures that the database remains in a consistent (correct) state despite system
failures, and that concurrent transaction executions proceed without conflicting.
 File Manager, which manages the allocation of space on disk storage and the data structures used to represent
information stored on disk.
 Buffer Manager, which is responsible for fetching data from disk storage into main memory, and deciding
what data to cache in main memory. The buffer manager is a critical part of the database system, since it
enables the database to handle data sizes that are much larger than the size of main memory.

The storage manager implements several data structures as part of the physical system implementation:
 Data files, which store the database itself.
 Data Dictionary, which stores metadata about the structure of the database, in particular the schema of the
database.
 Indices, which can provide fast access to data items. Like the index in this textbook, a database index provides
pointers to those data items that hold a particular value.
The Query Processor
The query processor components include:
 DDL Interpreter, which interprets DDL statements and records the definitions
 in the data dictionary.
 DML Compiler, which translates DML statements in a query language into an evaluation plan consisting of
low-level instructions that the query evaluation engine understands.
 Query Optimization; that is, it picks the lowest cost evaluation plan from among the alternatives.
 Query evaluation engine, which executes low-level instructions generated by the DML compiler.

6|Page PRAMOD KUMAR (ASST.PROF.)

Downloaded by Deepansh Sharma ([email protected])

 lOMoARcPSD|50004020

Data Modeling using the Entity Relationship Model:

Modeling
 A database can be modeled as:
 a collection of entities,
 relationship among entities.
 An entity is an object that exists and is distinguishable from other objects.
 Example: specific person, company, event, plant
 An entity is represented by a set of attributes. Attributes are descriptive properties possessed by each member of an
entity set.
 Example: people have names and addresses
 An entity set is a set of entities of the same type that share the same properties.
 Example: set of all persons, companies, trees, holidays

Example: Entity Sets customer and loan

7|Page PRAMOD KUMAR (ASST.PROF.)

Downloaded by Deepansh Sharma ([email protected])

 lOMoARcPSD|50004020

Customer_ID Customer_Name Customer_Street Customer_City Loan_No Amount

Relationship Sets

 A relationship is an association among several entities

Example:
Hayes depositor A-102
customer entity relationship set account entity
 A relationship set is a mathematical relation among n  2 entities, each taken from entity sets
{(e1, e2, … en) | e1  E1, e2  E2, …, en  En}

where (e1, e2, …, en) is a relationship

 Example:
(Hayes, A-102)  depositor

Relationship Set borrower

 An attribute can also be property of a relationship set.

 For instance, the depositor relationship set between entity sets customer and account may have the attribute
access-date

8|Page PRAMOD KUMAR (ASST.PROF.)

Downloaded by Deepansh Sharma ([email protected])

 lOMoARcPSD|50004020

Degree of a Relationship Set

 Refers to number of entity sets that participate in a relationship set.
 Relationship sets that involve two entity sets are binary (or degree two). Generally, most relationship sets in
a database system are binary.
 Relationship sets may involve more than two entity sets.
 Example: Suppose employees of a bank may have jobs (responsibilities) at multiple branches, with different
jobs at different branches. Then there is a ternary relationship set between entity sets employee, job, and
branch
 Relationships between more than two entity sets are rare. Most relationships are binary.

Attributes

 An entity is represented by a set of attributes, that is descriptive properties possessed by all members of an
entity set.
Example:
customer = (customer_id, customer_name,
customer_street, customer_city )
loan = (loan_number, amount )

 Domain – the set of permitted values for each attribute

 Attribute types:
 Simple and Composite Attributes- Attributes which cannot be divided into subparts are simple
attributes and which can be divided into sub parts are composite attributes.
Example: balance, Account number a simple attribute whereas name and address are composite
attributes.
 Single-Valued and Multi-Valued Attributes- The attribute for which we have a single value for each
entity is called single-valued attribute and the attribute for which we have a set of values for a particular
entity is called multivalued attribute.
Example: loan number, age are single valued attributes whereas phone, dependent name qualification
multi valued attribute
 Example: multivalued attribute: phone_numbers
 Derived attributes: The value of attribute which is derived from the value of other related attribute is
called derived attribute.
Example: age derived from date-of-birth, Experience derived from date of joining etc. The value of
derived attribute is not stored but is computed when required.
 Can be computed from other attributes
 Example: age, given date_of_birth

9|Page PRAMOD KUMAR (ASST.PROF.)

Downloaded by Deepansh Sharma ([email protected])

 lOMoARcPSD|50004020

Mapping Cardinality Constraints

 Express the number of entities to which another entity can be associated via a relationship set.
 Most useful in describing binary relationship sets.
 For a binary relationship set the mapping cardinality must be one of the following types:
 One to one
 One to many
 Many to one
 Many to many

One to One One to Many

Many to One Many to Many

10 | P a g e PRAMOD KUMAR (ASST.PROF.)

Downloaded by Deepansh Sharma ([email protected])

 lOMoARcPSD|50004020

Keys
 A super key of an entity set is a set of one or more attributes whose values uniquely determine each entity.
 A candidate key of an entity set is a minimal super key
 Customer_id is candidate key of customer
 account_number is candidate key of account
 Although several candidate keys may exist, one of the candidate keys is selected to be the primary key.
Keys for Relationship Sets

 The combination of primary keys of the participating entity sets forms a super key of a relationship set.
 (customer_id, account_number) is the super key of depositor
 NOTE: this means a pair of entity sets can have at most one relationship in a particular relationship
set.
 Example: if we wish to track all access_dates to each account by each customer, we cannot
assume a relationship for each access. We can use a multivalued attribute though
 Must consider the mapping cardinality of the relationship set when deciding what are the candidate keys
 Need to consider semantics of relationship set in selecting the primary key in case of more than one candidate
key

E-R Diagrams

 Rectangles represent entity sets.

 Diamonds represent relationship sets.
 Lines link attributes to entity sets and entity sets to relationship sets.
 Ellipses represent attributes
 Double ellipses represent multivalued attributes.
 Dashed ellipses denote derived attributes.
 Underline indicates primary key attributes

E-R Diagram with Composite, Multivalued, and Derived Attributes

Relationship Sets with Attributes

11 | P a g e PRAMOD KUMAR (ASST.PROF.)

Downloaded by Deepansh Sharma ([email protected])

 lOMoARcPSD|50004020

Roles

 Entity sets of a relationship need not be distinct

 The labels “manager” and “worker” are called roles; they specify how employee entities interact via the
works_for relationship set.
 Roles are indicated in E-R diagrams by labeling the lines that connect diamonds to rectangles.
 Role labels are optional, and are used to clarify semantics of the relationship

Cardinality Constraints

 We express cardinality constraints by drawing either a directed line (), signifying “one,” or an undirected line
(—), signifying “many,” between the relationship set and the entity set.
 One-to-one relationship:
 A customer is associated with at most one loan via the relationship borrower
 A loan is associated with at most one customer via borrower

One-To-Many Relationship

 In the one-to-many relationship a loan is associated with at most one customer via borrower, a customer is
associated with several (including 0) loans via borrower

12 | P a g e PRAMOD KUMAR (ASST.PROF.)

Downloaded by Deepansh Sharma ([email protected])

 lOMoARcPSD|50004020

Many-To-One Relationships

 In a many-to-one relationship a loan is associated with several (including 0) customers via borrower, a
customer is associated with at most one loan via borrower

Many-To-Many Relationship

 A customer is associated with several (possibly 0) loans via borrower

 A loan is associated with several (possibly 0) customers via borrower

E-R Diagram with a Ternary Relationship

Weak Entity Sets

 An entity set that does not have a primary key is referred to as a weak entity set.
 The existence of a weak entity set depends on the existence of a identifying entity set
 it must relate to the identifying entity set via a total, one-to-many relationship set from the identifying
to the weak entity set
 Identifying relationship depicted using a double diamond
 The discriminator (or partial key) of a weak entity set is the set of attributes that distinguishes among all the
entities of a weak entity set.
 The primary key of a weak entity set is formed by the primary key of the strong entity set on which the weak
entity set is existence dependent, plus the weak entity set’s discriminator.
 We depict a weak entity set by double rectangles.
 We underline the discriminator of a weak entity set with a dashed line.
 payment_number – discriminator of the payment entity set
 Primary key for payment – (loan_number, payment_number)

13 | P a g e PRAMOD KUMAR (ASST.PROF.)

Downloaded by Deepansh Sharma ([email protected])

 lOMoARcPSD|50004020

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.

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.
 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

14 | P a g e PRAMOD KUMAR (ASST.PROF.)

Downloaded by Deepansh Sharma ([email protected])

 lOMoARcPSD|50004020

 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
 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, which we saw earlier
 Suppose we want to record managers for tasks performed by an
employee at a branch
 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
n 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

15 | P a g e PRAMOD KUMAR (ASST.PROF.)

Downloaded by Deepansh Sharma ([email protected])

 lOMoARcPSD|50004020

E-R Diagram for a Banking Enterprise

Reduction of an ER Diagrams to Tables

16 | P a g e PRAMOD KUMAR (ASST.PROF.)

Downloaded by Deepansh Sharma ([email protected])

 lOMoARcPSD|50004020

o Since ER diagram gives us the good knowledge about the requirement and the mapping of the entities in it, we
can easily convert them as tables and columns. i.e.; using ER diagrams one can easily create relational data
model, which nothing but the logical view of the database.
o There are various steps involved in converting it into tables and columns. Consider the ER diagram below and
will see how it is converted into tables, columns and mappings.
The basic rule for converting the ER diagrams into tables is
 Convert all the Entities in the diagram to tables.
All the entities represented in the rectangular box in the ER diagram become independent tables in the database. In the
below diagram, STUDENT, COURSE, LECTURER and SUBJECTS forms individual tables.
 All single valued attributes of an entity is converted to a column of the table
All the attributes, whose value at any instance of time is unique, are considered as columns of that table. In the
STUDENT Entity, STUDENT_ID, STUDENT_NAME form the columns of STUDENT table. Similarly,
LECTURER_ID, LECTURER_NAME form the columns of LECTURER table. And so on.

 Key attribute in the ER diagram becomes the Primary key of the table.
In diagram above, STUDENT_ID, LECTURER_ID, COURSE_ID and SUB_ID are the key attributes of the entities.
Hence we consider them as the primary keys of respective table.
 Declare the foreign key column, if applicable.
In the diagram, attribute COURSE_ID in the STUDENT entity is from COURSE entity. Hence add COURSE_ID in the
STUDENT table and assign it foreign key constraint. COURSE_ID and SUBJECT_ID in LECTURER table forms the
foreign key column. Hence by declaring the foreign key constraints, mapping between the tables are established.
 Any multi-valued attributes are converted into new table.
A hobby in the Student table is a multivalued attribute. Any student can have any number of hobbies. So we cannot
represent multiple values in a single column of STUDENT table. We need to store it separately, so that we can store
any number of hobbies, adding/ removing / deleting hobbies should not create any redundancy or anomalies in the

17 | P a g e PRAMOD KUMAR (ASST.PROF.)

Downloaded by Deepansh Sharma ([email protected])

 lOMoARcPSD|50004020

system. Hence we create a separate table STUD_HOBBY with STUDENT_ID and HOBBY as its columns. We create
a composite key using both the columns.
 Any composite attributes are merged into same table as different columns.
In the diagram above, Student Address is a composite attribute. It has Door#, Street, City, State and Pin. These attributes
are merged into STUDENT table as individual columns.
 One can ignore derived attribute, since it can be calculated at any time.
In the STUDENT table, Age can be derived at any point of time by calculating the difference between DateOfBirth and
current date. Hence we need not create a column for this attribute. It reduces the duplicity in the database.
These are the very basic rules of converting ER diagram into tables and columns, and assigning the mapping between
the tables. Table structure at this would be as below:

Let us see some of the special cases.

 Converting Weak Entity
Weak entity is also represented as table. All the attributes of the weak entity forms the column of the table. But the key
attribute represented in the diagram cannot form the primary key of this table. We have to add a foreign key column,
which would be the primary key column of its strong entity. This foreign key column along with its key attribute column
forms the primary key of the table.
In our example above, SUBJECTS is the weak entity. Hence, we create a table for it. Its attributes SUBJECT_ID and
SUBJECT_NAME forms the column of this table. Although SUBJECT_ID is represented as key attribute in the
diagram, it cannot be considered as primary key. In order to add primary key to the column, we have to find the foreign
key first. COURSE is the strong entity related to SUBJECT. Hence the primary key COURSE_ID of COURSE is added
to SUBJECT table as foreign key. Now we can create a composite primary key out of COURSE_ID and SUBJECT_ID.

18 | P a g e PRAMOD KUMAR (ASST.PROF.)

Downloaded by Deepansh Sharma ([email protected])

 lOMoARcPSD|50004020

 Representing 1:1 relationship

Imagine SUBJECT is not a weak entity, and we have LECTURER teaches SUBJECT relation. It is a 1:1 relation. i.e.;
one lecturer teaches only one subject. We can represent this case in two ways
1. Create table for both LECTURER and SUBJECT. Add the primary key of LECTURER in SUBJECT table as
foreign key. It implies the lecturer name for that particular subject.
2. Create table for both LECTURER and SUBJECT. Add the primary key of SUBJECT in LECTURER table as
foreign key. It implies the subject taught by the lecturer.
In both the case, meaning is same. Foreign key column can be added in either of the table, depending on the
developer’s

choice.
 Representing 1:N relationship
Consider SUBJECT and LECTURER relation, where each Lecturer teaches multiple subjects. This is a 1: N relation. In
this case, primary key of LECTURER table is added to the SUBJECT table. i.e.; the primary key at 1 cardinality entity
is added as foreign key to N cardinality entity

 Representing M:N relationship

Consider the example, multiple students enrolled for multiple courses, which is M:N relation. In this case, we create
STUDENT and COURSE tables for the entities. Create one more table for the relation ‘Enrolment’ and name it as
STUD_COURSE. Add the primary keys of COURSE and STUDENT into it, which forms the composite primary key
of the new table.
That is, in this case both the participating entities are converted into tables, and a new table is created for the relation
between them. Primary keys of entity tables are added into new table to form the composite primary key. We can add
any additional columns, if present as attribute of the relation in ER diagram.

19 | P a g e PRAMOD KUMAR (ASST.PROF.)

Downloaded by Deepansh Sharma ([email protected])

 lOMoARcPSD|50004020

 Self-Referencing 1:N relation

Consider the example of HOD and Lecturers. Here one of the Lecturers is a HOD of the department. i.e.; one HOD has
multiple lecturers working with him. In this case, we create LECTURER table for the Lecturer entity. Create the columns
and primary keys as usual. In order to represent HOD, we add one more column to LECTURER table which is same
column as primary key, but acts as a foreign key. i.e.; LECTURER_ID is the primary key of LECTURER table. We add
one more column HOD, which will have LECTURER_ID of the HOD. Hence LECTURER table will show HOD’s
Lecturer ID for each Lecturer. In this case, primary key column acts as a foreign key in the same table.

 Self-Referencing M:N relation

Consider Student and Teacher example as ‘Manny students have Many Teachers teaching the subjects’. Here relation
between Student and Teacher is M:N. In this case, create independent tables for student and teacher, and set their primary
keys. Then we create a new table for the relationship ‘have’ as STUDENT_TEACHER, which will have student and
teacher combination, and any other columns if applicable. Basically, student-teacher combination is the two primary
key columns from respective tables, hence establishing the relationship between them. Both the primary keys from both
tables act as a composite primary key in the new table. This reduces the storing of redundant data and consistency in the
database.

20 | P a g e PRAMOD KUMAR (ASST.PROF.)

Downloaded by Deepansh Sharma ([email protected])