Elmasri and Navathe, Fundamentals of Database Systems, Fourth Edition

Copyright © 2004 Elmasri and Navathe.

 LESSON 3
LABORATORY

Elmasri and Navathe, Fundamentals of Database Systems, Fourth Edition

Copyright © 2004 Elmasri and Navathe. Chapter 3-2
Data Modeling Using the
Entity-Relationship Model

Copyright © 2004 Elmasri and Navathe.

 Data Modeling Using
the ER Model and its extensions
 Example Database Application (COMPANY)
 ER Model Concepts
– Entities and Attributes
– Entity Types, Value Sets, and Key Attributes
– Relationships and Relationship Types
– Weak Entity Types
– Roles and Attributes in Relationship Types
 ER Diagrams- Notation
 Relationships of Higher Degree
 Extended Entity-Relationship (EER) Model

Notation is based on :
R. Elmasri and S.B. Navathe, “ Fundamentals of Database Systems,” Ed. 3., Addison Wesley, 2000, Chapters 3.4.
Elmasri and Navathe, Fundamentals of Database Systems, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2004 Elmasri and Navathe.
 SUMMARY OF ER-DIAGRAM
NOTATION
Symbol Meaning

ENTITY TYPE

WEAK ENTITY TYPE

RELATIONSHIP TYPE

IDENTIFYING RELATIONSHIP TYPE

ATTRIBUTE

KEY ATTRIBUTE

MULTIVALUED ATTRIBUTE

COMPOSITE ATTRIBUTE

DERIVED ATTRIBUTE

E1 R E2 TOTAL PARTICIPATION OF E2 IN R

N CARDINALITY RATIO 1:N FOR E1:E2 IN R

E1 R E2

(min,max) STRUCTURAL CONSTRAINT (min, max) ON PARTICIPATION

R E OF E IN R
Elmasri and Navathe, Fundamentals of Database Systems, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2004 Elmasri and Navathe.
ER DIAGRAM FOR THE COMPANY
DATABASE

Elmasri and Navathe, Fundamentals of Database Systems, Fourth Edition

Copyright © 2004 Elmasri and Navathe.
 Example COMPANY
Database

 Requirements of the Company (oversimplified for

illustrative purposes)
– 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.
– Each department controls a number of PROJECTs.
Each project has a name, number and is located at a
single location.

Elmasri and Navathe, Fundamentals of Database Systems, Fourth Edition

Copyright © 2004 Elmasri and Navathe.
 Example COMPANY Database
(Cont.)

– We store each EMPLOYEE’s social security number,

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

Elmasri and Navathe, Fundamentals of Database Systems, Fourth Edition

Copyright © 2004 Elmasri and Navathe.
 ER Model Concepts:
Entities and Attributes
 Entities - are specific objects or things in the mini-world
that are represented in the database; for example, the
EMPLOYEE John Smith, the Research DEPARTMENT,
the ProductX PROJECT
 Attributes are properties used to describe an entity; for
example, an EMPLOYEE entity may have a Name, SSN,
Address, Sex, BirthDate
 A specific entity will have a value for each of its attributes;
for example, a specific employee entity may have
Name=‘John Smith’, SSN=‘123456789’, Address=‘731
Fondren, Houston, TX’, Sex=‘M’, BirthDate=‘09-JAN-55’

Elmasri and Navathe, Fundamentals of Database Systems, Fourth Edition

Copyright © 2004 Elmasri and Navathe.
 Types of Attributes
 Simple: Each entity has a single atomic value for the attribute;
for example SSN or Sex
 Composite: The attribute may be composed of several
components; for example, Address (Apt#, House#, Street,
City, State, ZipCode, Country) or Name(FirstName,
MiddleName, LastName). Composition may form a hierarchy
where some components are themselves composite.
 Multi-valued: An entity may have multiple values for that
attribute; for example, Color of a CAR or PreviousDegrees of
a STUDENT. Denoted as {Color} or {PreviousDegrees}.
 In general, composite and multi-valued attributes may be
nested arbitrarily to any number of levels although this is rare.
For example, PreviousDegrees of a STUDENT is a composite
multi-valued attribute denoted by {PreviousDegrees(College,
Year, Degree, Field)}.
Elmasri and Navathe, Fundamentals of Database Systems, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2004 Elmasri and Navathe.
 Entity Types and Key Attributes
 Entities with the same basic attributes are grouped or typed
into an entity type. For example, the EMPLOYEE entity type
or the PROJECT entity type.
 An attribute of an entity type for which each entity must have
a unique value is called a key attribute of the entity type. For
example, SSN of EMPLOYEE.
 A key attribute may be composite. For example,
VehicleTagNumber is a key of the CAR entity type with
components (Number, State).
 An entity type may have more than one key. For example, the
CAR entity type may have two keys:
– VehicleIdentificationNumber (popularly called VIN) and
– VehicleTagNumber (Number, State), also known as license_plate
number.

Elmasri and Navathe, Fundamentals of Database Systems, Fourth Edition

Copyright © 2004 Elmasri and Navathe.
 ENTITY TYPE CAR WITH
ATTRIBUTES
CAR
Registration(RegistrationNumber, State), VehicleID, Make, Model, Year, (Color)

car1
((ABC 123, TEXAS), TK629, Ford Mustang, convertible, 1989, (red, black))
car2
((ABC 123, NEW YORK), WP9872, Nissan Sentra, 2-door, 1992, (blue))
car3
((VSY 720, TEXAS), TD729, Chrysler LeBaron, 4-door, 1993, (white, blue))
.
.
.

Elmasri and Navathe, Fundamentals of Database Systems, Fourth Edition

Copyright © 2004 Elmasri and Navathe.
 Relationships and Relationship Types
 A relationship relates two or more distinct entities with a specific
meaning; for example, EMPLOYEE John Smith works on the
ProductX PROJECT or EMPLOYEE Franklin Wong manages the
Research DEPARTMENT.
 Relationships of the same type are grouped or typed into a
relationship type. For example, the WORKS_ON relationship type
in which EMPLOYEEs and PROJECTs participate, or the
MANAGES relationship type in which EMPLOYEEs and
DEPARTMENTs participate.
 The degree of a relationship type is the number of participating
entity types. Both MANAGES and WORKS_ON are binary
relationships.
 More than one relationship type can exist with the same
participating entity types; for examples, MANAGES and
WORKS_FOR are distinct relationships between EMPLOYEE and
DEPARTMENT participate.
Elmasri and Navathe, Fundamentals of Database Systems, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2004 Elmasri and Navathe.
 Weak Entity Types
 An entity that does not have a key attribute
 A weak entity must participate in an identifying relationship
type with an owner or identifying entity type
 Entities are identified by the combination of:
– A partial key of the weak entity type
– The particular entity they are related to in the
identifying entity type
Example:
Suppose that a DEPENDENT entity is identified by the
dependent’s first name and birthdate, and the specific
EMPLOYEE that the dependent is related to. DEPENDENT
is a weak entity type with EMPLOYEE as its identifying
entity type via the identifying relationship type
DEPENDENT_OF
Elmasri and Navathe, Fundamentals of Database Systems, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2004 Elmasri and Navathe.
 ER Model and Data
Abstraction
ABSTRACTION ER Model Concept
 Classification  Entity Type- a grouping of
member entities
Relationship Type - a
grouping of member
relationships
 Aggregation  Relationship Type is an
aggregation of (over) its
participating entity types
 Identification  Weak Entity Type
 Generalization  ????????
Elmasri and Navathe, Fundamentals of Database Systems, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2004 Elmasri and Navathe.
 Constraints on Aggregation

 Cardinality Constraints on Relationship Types

– ( Also known as ratio constraints )
– Maximum Cardinality
 One-to-one
 One-to-many
 Many-to-many
– Minimum Cardinality (also called participation or
existence dependency constraints)
 zero (optional participation, not existence-dependent)
 one or more (mandatory, existence-dependent)

Elmasri and Navathe, Fundamentals of Database Systems, Fourth Edition

Copyright © 2004 Elmasri and Navathe.
 One-to-many(1:N) or Many-to-one (N:1)
RELATIONSHIP
EMPLOYEE WORKS_FOR DEPARTMENT

e1 
r1  d1
e2  r2
e3   d2
r3
e4 
r4
e5  d3

r5
e6 

e7 r6


r7

Elmasri and Navathe, Fundamentals of Database Systems, Fourth Edition

Copyright © 2004 Elmasri and Navathe.
 MANY-TO-MANY(M:N)
RELATIONSHIP
r9

e1 
r1  d1
e2  r2
e3   d2
r3
e4 
r4
e5  d3

r5
e6 

e7 r6


r7
r8

Elmasri and Navathe, Fundamentals of Database Systems, Fourth Edition

Copyright © 2004 Elmasri and Navathe.
 Relationships of Higher Degree

 Relationship types of degree 2 are called binary

 Relationship types of degree 3 are called ternary and of
degree n are called n-ary
 In general, an n-ary relationship is not equivalent to n
binary relationships

Elmasri and Navathe, Fundamentals of Database Systems, Fourth Edition

Copyright © 2004 Elmasri and Navathe.
TERNARY RELATIONSHIPS

© The Benjamin/Cummings Publishing Company, Inc. 1994, Elmasri/Navathe, Fundamentals of Database Systems, Second Edition

Elmasri and Navathe, Fundamentals of Database Systems, Fourth Edition

Copyright © 2004 Elmasri and Navathe.
 TERNARY RELATIONSHIP-
Instance Diagram
SUPPLIER SUPPLY PROJECT

s1 
r1  j1
s2 
r2
 j2
r3

r4  j3
PART
r5
p1 

p2 r6


p3  r7

Elmasri and Navathe, Fundamentals of Database Systems, Fourth Edition

Copyright © 2004 Elmasri and Navathe.
ER DIAGRAM WITH ROLE NAMES
AND MINI-MAX CONSTRAINTS

Elmasri and Navathe, Fundamentals of Database Systems, Fourth Edition

Copyright © 2004 Elmasri and Navathe.
 Data Modeling Tools

A number of popular tools that cover conceptual

modeling and mapping into relational schema
design. Examples: ERWin, S- Designer
(Enterprise Application Suite), ER- Studio, etc.
POSITIVES: serves as documentation of
application requirements, easy user
interface - mostly graphics editor support

Elmasri and Navathe, Fundamentals of Database Systems, Fourth Edition

Copyright © 2004 Elmasri and Navathe.
 Problems with Current
Modeling Tools
 DIAGRAMMING
– Poor conceptual meaningful notation.
– To avoid the problem of layout algorithms and
aesthetics of diagrams, they prefer boxes and lines and
do nothing more than represent (primary-foreign key)
relationships among resulting tables.(a few exceptions)
 METHODOLOGY
– lack of built-in methodology support.
– poor tradeoff analysis or user-driven design preferences.
– poor design verification and suggestions for
improvement.
Elmasri and Navathe, Fundamentals of Database Systems, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2004 Elmasri and Navathe.
 Some of the Currently Available Automated Database
Design Tools
COMPANY TOOL FUNCTIONALITY
Embarcadero ER Studio Database Modeling in ER and IDEF1X
Technologies
DB Artisan Database administration and space and security
management
Oracle Developer 2000 and Designer Database modeling, application development
2000
Popkin Software System Architect 2001 Data modeling, object modeling, process modeling,
structured analysis/design
Platinum Platinum Enterprice Data, process, and business component modeling
Technology Modeling Suite: Erwin,
BPWin, Paradigm Plus
Persistence Inc. Pwertier Mapping from O-O to relational model

Rational Rational Rose Modeling in UML and application generation in C++

and JAVA
Rogue Ware RW Metro Mapping from O-O to relational model

Resolution Ltd. Xcase Conceptual modeling up to code maintenance

Sybase Enterprise Application Suite Data modeling, business logic modeling

Visio Visio Enterprise Data modeling, design and reengineering Visual Basic
and Visual C++
Elmasri and Navathe, Fundamentals of Database Systems, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2004 Elmasri and Navathe.
ER DIAGRAM FOR A BANK
DATABASE

© The Benjamin/Cummings Publishing Company, Inc. 1994, Elmasri/Navathe, Fundamentals of Database Systems, Second Edition

Elmasri and Navathe, Fundamentals of Database Systems, Fourth Edition

Copyright © 2004 Elmasri and Navathe.
 PROBLEM with ER notation

THE ENTITY RELATIONSHIP MODEL IN

ITS ORIGINAL FORM DID NOT
SUPPORT THE GENERALIZATION
ABSTRACTION.

Elmasri and Navathe, Fundamentals of Database Systems, Fourth Edition

Copyright © 2004 Elmasri and Navathe.
 Extended Entity-Relationship
(EER) Model
 Incorporates Set-subset relationships
 Incorporates Generalization Hierarchies
 LIMITATIONS OF THE ER MODEL:
 No relationship may be defined between an entity type
and a relationship type

Elmasri and Navathe, Fundamentals of Database Systems, Fourth Edition

Copyright © 2004 Elmasri and Navathe.
Elmasri and Navathe, Fundamentals of Database Systems, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2004 Elmasri and Navathe.