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Lecture 5

The document discusses the Entity-Relationship (ER) model, a high-level data model used for conceptual database design, represented through entity-relationship diagrams. It covers components such as entities, attributes, keys, and mapping constraints, as well as the concept of weak entity sets and specialization. The document emphasizes the importance of keys in uniquely identifying records and establishing relationships within a database.

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Wilfred Kachala
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2 views23 pages

Lecture 5

The document discusses the Entity-Relationship (ER) model, a high-level data model used for conceptual database design, represented through entity-relationship diagrams. It covers components such as entities, attributes, keys, and mapping constraints, as well as the concept of weak entity sets and specialization. The document emphasizes the importance of keys in uniquely identifying records and establishing relationships within a database.

Uploaded by

Wilfred Kachala
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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DATABASE SYSTEMS

Lecture –5 ER Model
ER MODEL
ER model stands for an Entity-Relationship model. It is a high-level
data model. This model is used to define the data elements and
relationship for a specified system.
It develops a conceptual design for the database. It also develops a
very simple and easy to design view of data.
In ER modeling, the database structure is portrayed as a diagram
called an entity-relationship diagram.
For example, Suppose we design a school database. In this database,
the student will be an entity with attributes like address, name, id,
age, etc. The address can be another entity with attributes like city,
street name, pin code, etc and there will be a relationship between
them.
COMPONENT OF ER
DIAGRAM
➢ ENTITY:

An entity may be any object, class, person or place. In the ER diagram,


an entity can be represented as rectangles.
Consider an organization as an example- manager, product, employee,
department etc. can be taken as an entity.
2. ATTRIBUTE

The attribute is used to describe the property of an entity. Eclipse is


used to represent an attribute.
For example, id, age, contact number, name, etc. can be attributes of a
student.
❑ KEY ATTRIBUTE

The key attribute is used to represent the main characteristics of an


entity. It represents a primary key. The key attribute is represented by
an ellipse with the text underlined.
❑COMPOSITE ATTRIBUTE

An attribute that composed of many other attributes is known as a


composite attribute. The composite attribute is represented by an
ellipse, and those ellipses are connected with an ellipse.
❑MULTIVALUED ATTRIBUTE

An attribute can have more than one value. These attributes are known
as a multivalued attribute. The double oval is used to represent
multivalued attribute.
For example, a student can have more than one phone number.
❑DERIVED ATTRIBUTE

An attribute that can be derived from other attribute is known as a


derived attribute. It can be represented by a dashed ellipse.
For example, A person's age changes over time and can be derived
from another attribute like Date of birth.
MAPPING
CONSTRAINTS
A mapping constraint is a data constraint that expresses the number of
entities to which another entity can be related via a relationship set.
It is most useful in describing the relationship sets that involve more
than two entity sets.
For binary relationship set R on an entity set A and B, there are four
possible mapping cardinalities. These are as follows:
i. One to one (1:1)
ii. One to many (1:M)
iii. Many to one (M:1)
iv. Many to many (M:M)
ONE-TO-ONE

In one-to-one mapping, an entity in E1 is associated with at most one


entity in E2, and an entity in E2 is associated with at most one entity
in E1.
ONE-TO-MANY

In one-to-many mapping, an entity in E1 is associated with any


number of entities in E2, and an entity in E2 is associated with at
most one entity in E1.
MANY-TO-ONE

In one-to-many mapping, an entity in E1 is associated with at most


one entity in E2, and an entity in E2 is associated with any number of
entities in E1.
MANY-TO-MANY

In many-to-many mapping, an entity in E1 is associated with any


number of entities in E2, and an entity in E2 is associated with any
number of entities in E1.
KEYS
Keys play an important role in the relational database.
It is used to uniquely identify any record or row of data from the table.
It is also used to establish and identify relationships between tables.
For example: In Student table, ID is used as a key because it is unique
for each student. In PERSON table, passport_number, license_number,
SSN are keys since they are unique for each person.
TYPES OF
KEY:
➢ PRIMARY KEY
It is the first key which is used to identify one and only one instance of
an entity uniquely. An entity can contain multiple keys as we saw in
PERSON table. The key which is most suitable from those lists become
a primary key.
ENTITY RELATIONSHIP
DIAGRAM
WHAT IS AN ENTITY
RELATIONSHIP DIAGRAM
(ERD)?
An entity relationship diagram (ERD) shows the relationships of entity
sets stored in a database. An entity in this context is an object, a
component of data. An entity set is a collection of similar entities.
These entities can have attributes that define its properties.

By defining the entities, their attributes, and showing the relationships


between them, an ER diagram illustrates the logical structure of
databases.
ER diagrams are used to sketch out the design of a database.
WEAK ENTITY SETS

A weak entity set is an entity set that does not contain sufficient
attributes to uniquely identify its entities. In other words, a primary
key does not exist for a weak entity set. However, it contains a
partial key called as a discriminator. Discriminator can identify a
group of entities from the entity set.
EXTENDED E-R FEATURES –
SPECIALIZATION
An entity set may include sub-groupings of entities that are distinct in some way from other
entities in the set. For instance, a subset of entities within an entity set may have attributes that are
not shared by all the entities in the entity set.

As an example, the entity set person may be further classified as one of the following: employee,
student.

Each of these person types is described by a set of attributes that includes all the attributes of
entity set person plus possibly additional attributes.

The process of designating sub-groupings within an entity set is called specialization.

For example, : A university divides students into two categories: graduate and undergraduate.
Graduate students have an office assigned to them. Undergraduate students are assigned to a
residential college. Each of these student types is described by a set of attributes that includes all
the attributes of the entity set student plus additional attributes.

An entity set may be specialized by more than one distinguishing feature. A distinguishing
feature among employee entities is the job the employee performs.
In terms of an E-R diagram, specialization is depicted by a hollow arrow-head pointing from the
specialized entity to the other entity. This relationship is the ISA relationship, which stands for “is a”
and represents, for example, that an instructor “is a” employee.

Types of specialization :

❑overlapping specialization : An entity may belong to multiple specialized entity sets.


❑ disjoint specialization : An entity may belong to at most one specialized entity sets.

For an overlapping specialization


(as is the case for student and employee
as specializations of person), two separate
arrows are used. For a disjoint specialization
(as is the case for instructor and secretary
as specializations of employee), a single
arrow is used.

The specialization relationship may also be


referred to as a superclass - subclass relationship.
THANK YOU!

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