Data Modeling using the Entity-

Relationship (ER) model

Chapter 3

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 Outline
n Overview of Database Design Process
n Example Database Application (COMPANY)
n ER Model Concepts
n Entities and Attributes
n Entity Types, Value Sets, and Key Attributes
n Relationships and Relationship Types
n Weak Entity Types
n Roles and Attributes in Relationship Types
n ER Diagrams - Notation
n ER Diagram for COMPANY Schema

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 Overview of Database design process

n Two main activities:

n Database design
n Applications design
n Focus in this chapter on database design
n To design the conceptual schema for a database
application
n Applications design focuses on the programs and
interfaces that access the database
n Generally considered part of software engineering

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 Domains, attributes, tuples and relations…
Example: company database
n We need to create a database schema design
based on the following (simplified) requirements
of the COMPANY Database:
n The company is organized into DEPARTMENTs.
Each department has a name, number and an
employee who manages the department. We keep
track of the start date of the department manager.
A department may have several locations.
n Each department controls a number of PROJECTs.
Each project has a unique name, unique number
and is located at a single location.

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 Example: company database

n We store each EMPLOYEE’s social security

number, address, salary ...
n Each employee works for one department but may
work on several projects.
n We keep track of the number of hours per week that
an employee currently works on each project.
n We also keep track of the direct supervisor of each
employee.
n Each employee may have a number of
DEPENDENTs.
n For each dependent, we keep track of their name,
sex, birthdate, and relationship to the employee.

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 ER Model concepts

n Entities and Attributes

n Entities are specific objects or things in the mini-world that
are represented in the database.
n For example the EMPLOYEE John Smith, the Research
DEPARTMENT, the ProductX PROJECT
n Attributes are properties used to describe an entity.
n For example an EMPLOYEE entity may have the attributes
Name, SSN, Address …
n A specific entity will have a value for each of its attributes.
n For example a specific employee entity may have Name='John
Smith', SSN='123456789', Address ='731, Fondren, Houston,
TX’, BirthDate='09-JAN-55‘
n Each attribute has a value set (or data type) associated with
it – e.g. integer, string, subrange, enumerated type, …

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 Types of attributes

n Simple
n Each entity has a single atomic value for the attribute. For
example: SSN.
n Composite
n The attribute may be composed of several components. For
example:
n Address(Apt#, House#, Street, City, State, ZipCode, Country), or
n Name(FirstName, MiddleName, LastName).
n Composition may form a hierarchy where some components
are themselves composite.
n Multi-valued
n An entity may have multiple values for that attribute. For
example, Color of a CAR or Previous Degrees of a STUDENT.
n Denoted as {Color} or {Previous Degrees}.

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 Example of composite attributes

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 Entity, types and key attributes

n Entities with the same basic attributes are

grouped or typed into an entity type.
n For example, the entity type EMPLOYEE
and PROJECT.
n An attribute of an entity type for which each
entity must have a unique value is called a
key attribute of the entity type.
n For example, SSN of EMPLOYEE.

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 Entity, types and key attributes

n A key attribute may be composite.

n VehicleTagNumber is a key of the CAR entity

type with components (Number, State).

n An entity type may have more than one key.
n The CAR entity type may have two keys:

n VehicleIdentificationNumber (popularly called VIN)

n VehicleTagNumber (Number, State), aka license
plate number.
n Each key is underlined

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 Displaying an entity type

n In ER diagrams, an entity type is displayed in a

rectangular box
n Attributes are displayed in ovals
n Each attribute is connected to its entity type
n Components of a composite attribute are
connected to the oval representing the composite
attribute
n Each key attribute is underlined
n Multivalued attributes displayed in double ovals
n See CAR example on next slide

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 Entity cars with two keys and a correspondi
ng entity set

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 Entity set

n Each entity type will have a collection of entities

stored in the database
n Called the entity set
n Previous slide shows three CAR entity instances
in the entity set for CAR
n Same name (CAR) used to refer to both the entity
type and the entity set
n Entity set is the current state of the entities of that
type that are stored in the database

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 Initial design of entity types for the company
database schema

n Based on the requirements, we can identify four

initial entity types in the COMPANY database:
n DEPARTMENT
n PROJECT
n EMPLOYEE
n DEPENDENT
n Their initial design is shown on the following slide
n The initial attributes shown are derived from the
requirements description

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 Initial design of entity types:
EMPLOYEE, DEPARTMENT, PROJECT, DEPENDENT

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 Refining the initial design by introducing
relationship

n The initial design is typically not complete

n Some aspects in the requirements will be
represented as relationships
n ER model has three main concepts:
n Entities (and their entity types and entity sets)
n Attributes (simple, composite, multivalued)
n Relationships (and their relationship types and
relationship sets)
n We introduce relationship concepts next

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 Refining the initial design by introducing
relationship
n A relationship relates two or more distinct entities with a
specific meaning.
n For example, EMPLOYEE John Smith works on the ProductX
PROJECT, or EMPLOYEE Franklin Wong manages the
Research DEPARTMENT.
n Relationships of the same type are grouped or typed into a
relationship type.
n For example, the WORKS_ON relationship type in which
EMPLOYEEs and PROJECTs participate, or the MANAGES
relationship type in which EMPLOYEEs and DEPARTMENTs
participate.
n The degree of a relationship type is the number of
participating entity types.
n Both MANAGES and WORKS_ON are binary relationships.

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 Relationship instances of the n:1
Relationship between EMPLOYEE and DEPARTMENT

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 Relationship instances of the m:n
Relationship between EMPLOYEE and PROJECT

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 Relationship type Vs Relationship set

n Relationship Type:
n Is the schema description of a relationship
n Identifies the relationship name and the
participating entity types
n Also identifies certain relationship constraints
n Relationship Set:
n The current set of relationship instances
represented in the database
n The current state of a relationship type

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 Relationship type Vs Relationship set

n Previous figures displayed the relationship sets

n Each instance in the set relates individual
participating entities – one from each participating
entity type
n In ER diagrams, we represent the relationship
type as follows:
n Diamond-shaped box is used to display a
relationship type
n Connected to the participating entity types via
straight lines
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 Refining the COMPANY database
Schema by introducing relationships

n By examining the requirements, six relationship types are

identified
n All are binary relationships( degree 2)
n Listed below with their participating entity types:
n WORKS_FOR (between EMPLOYEE, DEPARTMENT)
n MANAGES (also between EMPLOYEE, DEPARTMENT)
n CONTROLS (between DEPARTMENT, PROJECT)
n WORKS_ON (between EMPLOYEE, PROJECT)
n SUPERVISION (between EMPLOYEE (as subordinate),
EMPLOYEE (as supervisor))
n DEPENDENTS_OF (between EMPLOYEE, DEPENDENT)

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 ER Diagram – Relationship types are:
WORKS_FOR, MANAGES, WORKS_ON, CONTROLS, SUPERVISION, DEPENDTS_OF

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 Discussion on Relationship types

n In the refined design, some attributes from the initial entity

types are refined into relationships:
n Manager of DEPARTMENT -> MANAGES
n Works_on of EMPLOYEE -> WORKS_ON
n Department of EMPLOYEE -> WORKS_FOR
n etc
n In general, more than one relationship type can exist
between the same participating entity types
n MANAGES and WORKS_FOR are distinct relationship types
between EMPLOYEE and DEPARTMENT
n Different meanings and different relationship instances.

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 Recursive relationship type

n An relationship type whose with the same participating

entity type in distinct roles
n Example: the SUPERVISION relationship
n EMPLOYEE participates twice in two distinct roles:
n supervisor (or boss) role
n supervisee (or subordinate) role
n Each relationship instance relates two distinct EMPLOYEE
entities:
n One employee in supervisor role
n One employee in supervisee role

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 Weak entity types

n An entity that does not have a key attribute

n A weak entity must participate in an identifying relationship type with
an owner or identifying entity type
n Entities are identified by the combination of:
n A partial key of the weak entity type

n The particular entity they are related to in the identifying entity type

n Example:
n A DEPENDENT entity is identified by the dependent’s first name,
and the specific EMPLOYEE with whom the dependent is related
n Name of DEPENDENT is the partial key

n DEPENDENT is a weak entity type

n EMPLOYEE is its identifying entity type via the identifying

relationship type DEPENDENT_OF

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 Constraints on relationships

n Constraints on Relationship Types

n (Also known as ratio constraints)
n Cardinality Ratio (specifies maximum participation)
n One-to-one (1:1)
n One-to-many (1:N) or Many-to-one (N:1)
n Many-to-many (M:N)
n Existence Dependency Constraint (specifies minimum
participation) (also called participation constraint)
n zero (optional participation, not existence-dependent)
n one or more (mandatory participation, existence-dependent)

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 Many-to-one (N:1) Relationship

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 Many-to-many (M:N) Relationship

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 Displaying a recursive relationship

n In a recursive relationship type.

n Both participations are same entity type in
different roles.
n For example, SUPERVISION relationships
between EMPLOYEE (in role of supervisor or
boss) and (another) EMPLOYEE (in role of
subordinate or worker).
n In following figure, first role participation labeled
with 1 and second role participation labeled with
2.
n In ER diagram, need to display role names to
distinguish participations.
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 A Recursive Relationship Supervision

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 Recursive Relationship Type is: SUPERVISION
(participation role names are shown)

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 Attributes of Relationship types

n A relationship type can have attributes:

n For example, HoursPerWeek of WORKS_ON
n Its value for each relationship instance describes
the number of hours per week that an EMPLOYEE
works on a PROJECT.
n A value of HoursPerWeek depends on a particular
(employee, project) combination
n Most relationship attributes are used with M:N
relationships
n In 1:N relationships, they can be transferred to the
entity type on the N-side of the relationship

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 Example Attribute of a Relationship Type:
Hours of WORKS_ON

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 Notation for Constraints on Relationships

n Cardinality ratio (of a binary relationship): 1:1,

1:N, N:1, or M:N
n Shown by placing appropriate numbers on the
relationship edges.
n Participation constraint (on each participating
entity type): total (called existence dependency)
or partial.
n Total shown by double line, partial by single line.
n NOTE: These are easy to specify for Binary
Relationship Types.

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 Alternative (min, max) notation for relations
hip structural constraints:
n Specified on each participation of an entity type E in a relationship
type R
n Specifies that each entity e in E participates in at least min and at
most max relationship instances in R
n Default(no constraint): min=0, max=n (signifying no limit)
n Must have min ≤ max, min ≥ 0, max ≥ 1
n Derived from the knowledge of mini-world constraints
n Examples:
n A department has exactly one manager and an employee can
manage at most one department.
n Specify (0,1) for participation of EMPLOYEE in MANAGES
n Specify (1,1) for participation of DEPARTMENT in MANAGES
n An employee can work for exactly one department but a
department can have any number of employees.
n Specify (1,1) for participation of EMPLOYEE in WORKS_FOR
n Specify (0,n) for participation of DEPARTMENT in WORKS_FOR

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 The (min,max) notation for relationship
constraints

Read the min, max numbers next to the entity

type and looking away from the entity type
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 COMPANY ER Schema Diagram using (min,
max) notation

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 Summary of notation for ER diagrams

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 Relationships of higher degree

n Relationship types of degree 2 are called binary

n Relationship types of degree 3 are called ternary
and of degree n are called n-ary
n In general, an n-ary relationship is not equivalent
to n binary relationships
n Constraints are harder to specify for higher-
degree relationships (n > 2) than for binary
relationships

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 Example of a ternary relationship

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 Another example of a ternary relationship

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 Displaying constraints on higher-degree rela
tionships
n The (min, max) constraints can be displayed on the edges
– however, they do not fully describe the constraints
n Displaying a 1, M, or N indicates additional constraints
n An M or N indicates no constraint
n A 1 indicates that an entity can participate in at most one
relationship instance that has a particular combination of the
other participating entities
n In general, both (min, max) and 1, M, or N are needed to
describe fully the constraints

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 Summary

n ER Model Concepts: Entities, attributes,

relationships
n Constraints in the ER model
n Using ER in step-by-step conceptual schema
design for the COMPANY database
n ER Diagrams – Notation

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