Entity Sets
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
Entities have attributes
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
Entity Sets customer and loan
customer-id customer- customer- customername street
city
loan- amount
number
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.
Single-valued and multi-valued attributes
E.g. multi-valued attribute: phone-numbers
Derived attributes
Can be computed from other attributes
E.g. age, given date of birth
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Composite Attributes
Relationship Sets
A relationship is an association among several entities
Example:
Hayes depositor A-102
customer entity relationship set account entity
Relationship Set borrower
Relationship Sets (Cont.)
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
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.
E.g. 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. (More on this later.)
Mapping Cardinalities
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
Mapping Cardinalities
One to one
Note: Some
One to many
elements in A and B may not be mapped to any
elements in the other set
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Mapping Cardinalities
Many to one
Note:
Many to many
Some elements in A and B may not be mapped to any
elements in the other set
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Mapping Cardinalities affect ER Design
Can make access-date an attribute of account, instead of a
relationship attribute, if each account can have only one customer
I.e., the relationship from account to customer is many to
one, or equivalently, customer to account is one to many
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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 multi-valued attributes.
Dashed ellipses denote derived attributes.
Underline indicates primary key attributes (will study later)
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E-R Diagram With Composite, Multivalued, and
Derived Attributes
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Relationship Sets with
Attributes
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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
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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.
E.g.: 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
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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
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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
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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
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Participation of an Entity Set in a
Relationship Set
Total participation (indicated by double line): every entity in the entity
set participates in at least one relationship in the relationship set
E.g. participation of loan in borrower is total
every loan must have a customer
associated to it via borrower
Partial participation: some entities may not
participate in any relationship in the relationship set
E.g. participation of customer in borrower is partial
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Alternative Notation for Cardinality
Limits
Cardinality limits can also express participation constraints
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How about doing an ER design
interactively on the board?
Suggest an application to be modeled.
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Specialization Example
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E-R Diagram for a Banking Enterprise
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How about doing another ER design
interactively on the board?
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Summary of Symbols Used in E-R
Notation
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Summary of Symbols (Cont.)
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Alternative E-R Notations
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