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ER Diagram

ER diagram

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abhijit Dhar
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80 views

ER Diagram

ER diagram

Uploaded by

abhijit Dhar
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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E-R Diagrams in DBMS: Components, Symbols,

And Notations
E-R diagrams are used to model real-world objects like a person, a car, a company etc.
and the relation between these real-world objects. An e-r diagram has following
features:

 E-R diagrams are used to represent E-R model in a database, which makes them easy to
be converted into relations (tables).
 E-R diagrams provide the purpose of real-world modeling of objects which makes them
intently useful.
 E-R diagrams require no technical knowledge & no hardware support.
 These diagrams are very easy to understand and easy to create even by a naive user.
 It gives a standard solution of visualizing the data logically.

ER Diagrams Symbols, And Notations

Er Diagram Symbols and Notations


Components of an E-R diagram
An E-R diagram constitutes of following Components
A. Entity:- Any real-world object can be represented as an entity about which data can
be stored in a database. All the real world objects like a book, an organization, a product,
a car, a person are the examples of an entity. Any living or non-living objects can be
represented by an entity. An entity is symbolically represented by a rectangle enclosing
its name.

Entity
Entities can be characterized into two types:

 Strong entity: A strong entity has a primary key attribute which uniquely identifies
each entity. Symbol of strong entity is same as an entity.

Strong Entity

 Weak entity: A weak entity does not have a primary key attribute and depends on
other entity via a foreign key attribute.

Weak Entity
B. Attribute:- Each entity has a set of properties. These properties of each entity are
termed as attributes. For example, a car entity would be described by attributes such as
price, registration number, model number, color etc. Attributes are indicated by ovals in
an e-r diagram.

Attribute
A primary key attribute is depicted by an underline in the e-r diagram. An attribute can
be characterized into following types:

 Simple attribute:- An attribute is classified as a simple attribute if it cannot be


partitioned into smaller components. For example, age and sex of a person. A simple
attribute is represented by an oval.
 Composite attribute:- A composite attribute can be subdivided into smaller
components which further form attributes. For example, „name‟ attribute of an entity
“person” can be broken down into first name and last name which further form
attributes. Grouping of these related attributes forms a composite attribute. „name is the
composite attribute in this example.

Composite Attribute

 Single valued attribute:- If an attribute of a particular entity represents single value


for each instance, then it is called a single-valued attribute. For example, Ramesh, Kamal
and Suraj are the instances of entity „student‟ and each of them is issued a separate roll
number. A single oval is used to represent this attribute.
 Multi valued attribute:– An attribute which can hold more than one value, it is then
termed as multi-valued attribute. For example, phone number of a person. Symbol of
multi-valued attribute is shown below,
Multi Valued Attribute

 Derived attribute: A derived attribute calculate its value from another attribute. For
example, „age‟ is a derived attribute if it calculates its value from „current date‟ & „birth
date‟ attributes. A derived attribute is represented by a dashed oval.

C. Relationships:- A relationship is defined as bond or attachment between 2 or more


entities. Normally, a verb in a sentence signifies a relationship.

For example,

 An employee assigned a project.


 Teacher teaches a student.
 Author writes a book.

A diamond is used to symbolically represent a relationship in the e-r diagram.

Relationship

Various terms related to relationships


a). Degree of relationship:- It signifies the number of entities involved in a
relationship. Degree of a relationship can be classified into following types:

 Unary relationship:- If only single entity is involved in a relationship then it is


a unary relationship. For example, An employee(manager) supervises another
employee.
Unary relationship

 Binary relationships:- when two entities are associated to form a relation,


then it is known as a binary relationship. For example, A person works in a
company. Most of the times we use only binary relationship in an e-r diagram.
The teacher-student example shown above signifies a binary relationship.

Other types of relationships are ternary and quaternary. As the name signifies, a ternary
relationship is associated with three entities and a quaternary relationship is associated
with four entities.
b.) Connectivity of a relationship:- Connectivity of a relationship describes, how
many instances of one entity type are linked to how many instances of another entity
type. Various categories of connectivity of a relationship are;

 One to One (1:1) – “Student allotted a project” signifies a one-to-one


relationship because only one instance of an entity is related with exactly one
instance of another entity type.

One To One

 One to Many (1:M) – “A department recruits faculty” is a one-to-many


relationship because a department can recruit more than one faculty, but a
faculty member is related to only one department.

One to Many
 Many to One (M:1) – “Many houses are owned by a person” is a many-to-one
relationship because a person can own many houses but a particular house is
owned only a person.

Many To One

 Many to Many (M:N) – “Author writes books” is a many-to-many relationship


because an author can write many books and a book can be written by many
authors.

Many To Many
Sample ER DIGRAM
ER diagram Railway Reservation System

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