ER Model

o 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.
o It develops a conceptual design for the database. It also develops a
very simple and easy to design view of data.
o 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
1. 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.

a. Weak Entity
 a. An entity that depends on another entity called a weak entity.
The weak entity doesn't contain any key attribute of its own.
The weak entity is represented by a double rectangle.
b.

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.

a. 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.
b. 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.

c. 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.
 d. 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.

3. Relationship
A relationship is used to describe the relation between entities. Diamond
or rhombus is used to represent the relationship.

Types of relationship are as follows:

a. One-to-One Relationship
In a one-to-one relationship, a single instance of one entity is
associated with a single instance of another entity.

For example, A female can marry to one male, and a male can marry to
one female.

b. One-to-many relationship

When only one instance of the entity on the left, and more than one
instance of an entity on the right associates with the relationship then this
is known as a one-to-many relationship.

In a one-to-many relationship, a single instance of one entity can be

associated with multiple instances of another entity. However, each
instance of the second entity is associated with only one instance of the
first entity.

For example, Scientist can invent many inventions, but the invention is
done by the only specific scientist.

c. Many-to-one relationship

When more than one instance of the entity on the left, and only one
instance of an entity on the right associates with the relationship then it is
known as a many-to-one relationship.

where multiple instances of one entity are associated with a single

instance of another entity.

For example, Student enrolls for only one course, but a course can have
many students.
. Many-to-many relationship

When more than one instance of the entity on the left, and more than one
instance of an entity on the right associates with the relationship then it is
known as a many-to-many relationship.

For example, Employee can assign by many projects and project can
have many employees.

Notation of ER diagram
Database can be represented using the notations. In ER diagram, many
notations are used to express the cardinality. These notations are as
follows:
Fig: Notations of ER diagram

DBMS
DBMS stands for Database Management System, which is a tool, or a
software used to do various operations on a Database like the Creation of
the Database, Deletion of the Database, or Updating the current
Database. To simplify processing and data querying, the most popular
types of Databases currently in use typically model their data as rows and
columns in a set of tables. The data may then be handled, updated,
regulated, and structured with ease. For writing and querying data, most
Databases employ Structured Query Language (SQL).

Cardinality
Cardinality means how the entities are arranged to each other or what is
the relationship structure between entities in a relationship set. In a
Database Management System, Cardinality represents a number that
denotes how many times an entity is participating with another entity in a
relationship set. The Cardinality of DBMS is a very important attribute in
representing the structure of a Database. In a table, the number of rows
or tuples represents the Cardinality.
There are four types of Cardinality Mapping in Database Management
Systems:

1. One to one
2. Many to one
3. One to many
4. Many to many

Keys
o Keys play an important role in the relational database.
o 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, ID is used as a key in the Student table because it is

unique for each student. In the PERSON table, passport_number,
license_number, SSN are keys since they are unique for each person.

Types of keys:
1. Primary key

o It is the first key used to identify one and only one instance of an
entity uniquely. An entity can contain multiple keys, as we saw in
the PERSON table. The key which is most suitable from those lists
becomes a primary key.
o In the EMPLOYEE table, ID can be the primary key since it is unique
for each employee. In the EMPLOYEE table, we can even select
License_Number and Passport_Number as primary keys since they
are also unique.
o For each entity, the primary key selection is based on requirements
and developers.

2. Candidate key

o A candidate key is an attribute or set of attributes that can uniquely

identify a tuple.
 o Except for the primary key, the remaining attributes are considered
a candidate key. The candidate keys are as strong as the primary
key.

For example: In the EMPLOYEE table, id is best suited for the primary
key. The rest of the attributes, like SSN, Passport_Number,
License_Number, etc., are considered a candidate key.

3. Super Key
Super key is an attribute set that can uniquely identify a tuple. A super
key is a superset of a candidate key.
 For example: In the above EMPLOYEE table, for(EMPLOEE_ID,
EMPLOYEE_NAME), the name of two employees can be the same, but their
EMPLYEE_ID can't be the same. Hence, this combination can also be a key.

The super key would be EMPLOYEE-ID (EMPLOYEE_ID, EMPLOYEE-NAME),

etc.

4. Foreign key

o Foreign keys are the column of the table used to point to the
primary key of another table.
o Every employee works in a specific department in a company, and
employee and department are two different entities. So we can't
store the department's information in the employee table. That's
why we link these two tables through the primary key of one table.
o We add the primary key of the DEPARTMENT table, Department_Id,
as a new attribute in the EMPLOYEE table.
o In the EMPLOYEE table, Department_Id is the foreign key, and both
the tables are related.

5. Alternate key
There may be one or more attributes or a combination of attributes that
uniquely identify each tuple in a relation. These attributes or combinations
of the attributes are called the candidate keys. One key is chosen as the
primary key from these candidate keys, and the remaining candidate key,
if it exists, is termed the alternate key. In other words, the total number
of the alternate keys is the total number of candidate keys minus the
primary key. The alternate key may or may not exist. If there is only one
candidate key in a relation, it does not have an alternate key.

For example, employee relation has two attributes, Employee_Id and

PAN_No, that act as candidate keys. In this relation, Employee_Id is
chosen as the primary key, so the other candidate key, PAN_No, acts as
the Alternate key.

6. Composite key
Whenever a primary key consists of more than one attribute, it is known
as a composite key. This key is also known as Concatenated Key.
For example, in employee relations, we assume that an employee may
be assigned multiple roles, and an employee may work on multiple
projects simultaneously. So the primary key will be composed of all three
attributes, namely Emp_ID, Emp_role, and Proj_ID in combination. So
these attributes act as a composite key since the primary key comprises
more than one attribute.

Reduction of ER diagram to Table

The database can be represented using the notations, and these notations
can be reduced to a collection of tables.

In the database, every entity set or relationship set can be represented in

tabular form.

The ER diagram is given below:

There are some points for converting the ER diagram to the table:

o Entity type becomes a table.

In the given ER diagram, LECTURE, STUDENT, SUBJECT and COURSE forms

individual tables.

o All single-valued attribute becomes a column for the table.

In the STUDENT entity, STUDENT_NAME and STUDENT_ID form the column

of STUDENT table. Similarly, COURSE_NAME and COURSE_ID form the
column of COURSE table and so on.

o A key attribute of the entity type represented by the

primary key.

In the given ER diagram, COURSE_ID, STUDENT_ID, SUBJECT_ID, and

LECTURE_ID are the key attribute of the entity.

o The multivalued attribute is represented by a separate

table.
In the student table, a hobby is a multivalued attribute. So it is not
possible to represent multiple values in a single column of STUDENT table.
Hence we create a table STUD_HOBBY with column name STUDENT_ID
and HOBBY. Using both the column, we create a composite key.

o Composite attribute represented by components.

In the given ER diagram, student address is a composite attribute. It

contains CITY, PIN, DOOR#, STREET, and STATE. In the STUDENT table,
these attributes can merge as an individual column.

o Derived attributes are not considered in the table.

In the STUDENT table, Age is the derived attribute. It can be calculated at

any point of time by calculating the difference between current date and
Date of Birth.

Using these rules, you can convert the ER diagram to tables and columns
and assign the mapping between the tables. Table structure for the given
ER diagram is as below:

Figure: Table structure

 Relational Model in DBMS
Relational model can represent as a table with columns and rows. Each
row is known as a tuple. Each table of the column has a name or attribute.

Domain: It contains a set of atomic values that an attribute can take.

Attribute: It contains the name of a column in a particular table. Each

attribute Ai must have a domain, dom(Ai)

Relational instance: In the relational database system, the relational

instance is represented by a finite set of tuples. Relation instances do not
have duplicate tuples.

Relational schema: A relational schema contains the name of the

relation and name of all columns or attributes.

Relational key: In the relational key, each row has one or more
attributes. It can identify the row in the relation uniquely.

Example: STUDENT Relation

NAME ROLL_NO PHONE_NO ADDRESS AGE

Ram 14795 7305758992 Noida 24

Shyam 12839 9026288936 Delhi 35

Laxman 33289 8583287182 Gurugram 20

Mahesh 27857 7086819134 Ghaziabad 27

Ganesh 17282 9028 9i3988 Delhi 40

o In the given table, NAME, ROLL_NO, PHONE_NO, ADDRESS, and AGE

are the attributes.
o The instance of schema STUDENT has 5 tuples.
o t3 = <Laxman, 33289, 8583287182, Gurugram, 20>

Properties of Relations
o Name of the relation is distinct from all other relations.
o Each relation cell contains exactly one atomic (single) value
o Each attribute contains a distinct name
o Attribute domain has no significance
o tuple has no duplicate value
o Order of tuple can have a different sequence