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Module – I

Data Modeling Using the Entity-Relationship

(ER) Model

Dr. N. Rakesh
Associate Professor
Dept. of ISE, BMSIT, Bengaluru -064
Chapter Outline
▪ Example Database Application (COMPANY)
▪ ER Model Concepts
▪ Entity types,
▪ Entity sets and structural constraints,
▪ Weak entity types,
▪ ER diagrams,
▪ Specialization and Generalization

Slide 3- 2
Overview of Database Design Process

Two main activities:

◦ Database design

◦ Applications design

Focus in this chapter on database design

◦ To design the conceptual schema for a database application

Applications design focuses on the programs and interfaces that access the database
◦ Generally considered part of software engineering

Slide 3- 3
Overview of Database Design
Process

Slide 3- 4
Using High-Level Conceptual Data Models for Database
Design

❑ The first step shown is requirements collection and analysis.

❑During this step, the database designers interview prospective database users to understand and
document their data requirements.
❑In parallel with specifying the data requirements, it is useful to specify the known functional
requirements of the application.
❑These consist of the user defined operations (or transactions) that will be applied to the database,
including both retrievals and updates. Ex: OTP generation, ordering, cancelling, refunding etc..
❑ In software design, it is common to use data flow diagrams, sequence diagrams, scenarios, and other
techniques to specify functional requirements .

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 Using High-Level Conceptual Data Models for Database Design
contd..
❑ Once the requirements have been collected and analyzed, the next step is to create a conceptual
schema for the database.

❑ The conceptual schema is a concise description of the data requirements of the users and includes
detailed descriptions of the entity types, relationships, and constraints; these are expressed using the
concepts provided by the high-level data model.

❑ The next step in database design is the actual implementation of the database, using a commercial
DBMS.

❑ Most current commercial DBMSs use an implementation data model—such as the relational (SQL)
model—so the conceptual schema is transformed from the high-level data model into the
implementation data model.

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Using High-Level Conceptual Data Models for Database Design
contd..

❑ This step is called logical design or data model mapping; its result is a database schema in the
implementation data model of the DBMS.
❑Data model mapping is often automated or semiautomated within the database design tools.
❑The last step is the physical design phase, during which the internal storage structures, file
organizations, indexes, access paths, and physical design parameters for the database files are
specified.
❑In parallel with these activities, application programs are designed and implemented as
database transactions corresponding to the high-level transaction specifications. Ex: User
interface design through systems or mobile apps.

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Example COMPANY Database
We need to create a database schema design based on the following (simplified)
requirements of the COMPANY Database:
◦ 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.

◦ Each department controls a number of PROJECTs.

◦ Each project has a unique name, unique number and is located at a single location.

Slide 3- 8
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Example COMPANY Database (Contd.)
◦ 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
the employee.

Slide 3- 10
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 the attributes 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‘
❑ Each attribute has a value set (or data type) associated with it – e.g. integer, string, subrange,
enumerated type, …

Slide 3- 11
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ER - Diagram symbols

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Types of Attributes (1)
Simple
◦ Each entity has a single atomic value for the attribute. For example, SSN or Gender.

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}.

Slide 3- 14
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Types of Attributes (2)
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)} Ex: Diploma, BE, M.Tech etc..

◦ Multiple PreviousDegrees values can exist

◦ Each has four subcomponent attributes:

◦ College, Year, Degree, Field

Slide 3- 16
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Example of a composite attribute

Slide 3- 18
 Entity Types and Key Attributes (1)
❑ Entities with the same basic attributes are grouped or typed into an entity type.

◦ For example, the entity type EMPLOYEE and PROJECT.

❑ 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.

Slide 3- 19
Entity Types and Key Attributes (2)
A key attribute may be composite.

◦ VehicleTagNumber is a key of the CAR entity type with components (Number, State).

An entity type may have more than one key.

◦ The CAR entity type may have two keys:

◦ VehicleIdentificationNumber (popularly called VIN)

◦ VehicleTagNumber (Number, State), aka license plate number.

Each key is underlined

Slide 3- 20
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Displaying an Entity type
❑In ER diagrams, an entity type is displayed in a rectangular box

❑Attributes are displayed in ovals

◦ Each attribute is connected to its entity type

◦ Components of a composite attribute are connected to the oval representing the composite
attribute

◦ Each key attribute is underlined

◦ Multivalued attributes displayed in double ovals

See CAR example on next slide

Slide 3- 22
Entity Type CAR with two keys and a corresponding Entity Set

Slide 3- 23
 Entity Set
❑ Each entity type will have a collection of entities stored in the database
◦ Called the entity set
❑ Previous slide shows three CAR entity instances in the entity set for CAR
❑ Same name (CAR) used to refer to both the entity type and the entity set
❑ Entity set is the current state of the entities of that type that are stored in
the database

Slide 3- 24
 Initial Design of Entity Types for the COMPANY Database
Schema
❑ Based on the requirements, we can identify four initial entity types in the
COMPANY database:
◦ DEPARTMENT
◦ PROJECT
◦ EMPLOYEE
◦ DEPENDENT
❑ Their initial design is shown on the following slide
❑ The initial attributes shown are derived from the requirements description

Slide 3- 25
Initial Design of Entity Types:
EMPLOYEE, DEPARTMENT, PROJECT, DEPENDENT

Slide 3- 26
Refining the initial design by introducing relationships

❑ The initial design is typically not complete

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

Slide 3- 27
 Relationships and Relationship Types (1)
❑ 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.

Slide 3- 28
Relationship instances of the WORKS_FOR N:1 relationship between
EMPLOYEE and DEPARTMENT

Slide 3- 29
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Relationship instances of the M:N WORKS_ON relationship between
EMPLOYEE and PROJECT

Slide 3- 31
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Relationship type vs. relationship set (1)
Relationship Type:
◦ Is the schema description of a relationship
◦ Identifies the relationship name and the participating entity types
◦ Also identifies certain relationship constraints

Relationship Set:
◦ The current set of relationship instances represented in the database
◦ The current state of a relationship type

Slide 3- 33
 Relationship type vs. relationship set (2)

❑ Previous figures displayed the relationship sets

❑ Each instance in the set relates individual participating entities – one from each participating
entity type

❑ In ER diagrams, we represent the relationship type as follows:

◦ Diamond-shaped box is used to display a relationship type
◦ Connected to the participating entity types via straight lines

Slide 3- 34
Refining the COMPANY database schema by introducing
relationships
❑ By examining the requirements, six relationship types are identified

❑ All are binary relationships( degree 2)

❑ Listed below with their participating entity types:

◦ WORKS_FOR (between EMPLOYEE, DEPARTMENT)
◦ MANAGES (also between EMPLOYEE, DEPARTMENT)
◦ CONTROLS (between DEPARTMENT, PROJECT)
◦ WORKS_ON (between EMPLOYEE, PROJECT)
◦ SUPERVISION (between EMPLOYEE (as subordinate), EMPLOYEE (as supervisor))
◦ DEPENDENTS_OF (between EMPLOYEE, DEPENDENT)

Slide 3- 35
ER DIAGRAM – Relationship Types are:
WORKS_FOR, MANAGES,
WORKS_ON, CONTROLS,
SUPERVISION, DEPENDENTS_OF

Slide 3- 36
 Discussion on Relationship Types
❑ In the refined design, some attributes from the initial entity types are refined into relationships:

◦ Manager of DEPARTMENT -> MANAGES

◦ Works_on of EMPLOYEE -> WORKS_ON

◦ Department of EMPLOYEE -> WORKS_FOR

◦ etc

❑ In general, more than one relationship type can exist between the same participating entity types

◦ MANAGES and WORKS_FOR are distinct relationship types between EMPLOYEE and
DEPARTMENT

◦ Different meanings and different relationship instances.

Slide 3- 37
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STRUCTURAL CONSTRAINTS

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In Entity-Relationship modeling a partial key is an attribute of a weak entity type that combined
with the identifying relationships will identify entities of the entity type. Consider the following
example ER diagram:

Here we see a (strong) entity type “DogOwner” and a dependent weak entity type “Dog”
that is connected via the identifying relationship “owns”. The entity type “Dog” has attribute
“name” which is not globally unique (i.e., there might be more than one dog with the same
name), but is unique for a certain dog owner (i.e., an owner never owns two dogs with the
same name). In this case “name” cannot be a (primary) key of the entity type “Dog”, since
it is not globally unique, but it is a partial key, because if we combine it with the key of its
owner we can uniquely identify a dog.

ER DIAGRAM 49
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•Entity and entities
•Attributes
•Role names
•Relationships
•Structural relationships,
cardinality.
•Total & partial
participations
•Weak attributes

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Ex: Clinic information System

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