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Er Model

The document discusses key concepts in entity-relationship modeling including entity types, relationship types, attributes, and identifying properties. Relationship types can either be viewed as objects that are entities in their own right, or as "glue" between entity types. The document also covers subtyping, supertyping, union types, and whether certain model elements should be properties or entity types.

Uploaded by

Utkarsh Sethi
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© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
129 views

Er Model

The document discusses key concepts in entity-relationship modeling including entity types, relationship types, attributes, and identifying properties. Relationship types can either be viewed as objects that are entities in their own right, or as "glue" between entity types. The document also covers subtyping, supertyping, union types, and whether certain model elements should be properties or entity types.

Uploaded by

Utkarsh Sethi
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Entity-Relationship Model

Leo Mark
(May 2002)
The Real World The Model
real
customers
customer
surrogates
Entity Type and entity surrogates

airport

• entity type names must be unique


Single-valued Properties
airport

airport
name
Hartsfield Logan
Kastrup

• property values are lexical, visible, audible, ….they


are things that name other things
Identifying Properties
cph
lax
airport atl
code bos

airport

• for each identifying property value there is at most one


instance of the identified entity
• every entity must be uniquely referenceable
Multi-valued Properties

su
th mo th
weekdays we we
mo mo

flt-schedule
Composite Properties

1 Flughafen St
airport
400 Flight Av
airport 12 Logan Rd
street

airport airport Hamburg


city address
Denver
airport Boston
zip

90123
56789
12345
1-1 relationship types
1 1
female- current male-
customer marriage customer

partial functions

• the names of multiple relationship types between


the same two entity types must be unique
0-N and 1-N relationship types
1 N
airport from flt-schedule

partial function
Mandatory 0-N and 1-N
relationship types
1 N
airport from flt-schedule

total function
N-M relationship types
N M
customer reservation flt-instance
N-ary relationship types

plane-part-
supplier L supply plane-part
M

supplier# N quantity part#

repair- flt-repair-
order# order

• many ternary relationship types cannot be reduced


to a conjunction of binary relationship types
Identifying relationship types &
weak entity types

flt#

• flt-instance cannot exist


flt-schedule
without flt-schedule
• flt-instance cannot be
identified without flt-
schedule from
• (flt#, date) identifies flt-
instance date
flt-instance
recursive relationship types

out

connection flt-schedule flt#

in

departure arrival
time time
Are relationships entities?
Or, are they just “glue”?

1 N
airport from flt-schedule

departure
time

• relationships may have attributes


• for 1-N (and 1-1) relationships, attributes may
be moved to the entity on the “many-side”
Are relationships entities?
Or, are they just “glue”? (cont....)

N M
customer reservation flt-instance

payment
method

• in N-M relationships, the attributes cannot be


moved to the entities
• how can non-entities have attributes?
Are relationships entities?
Or, are they just “glue”? (cont....)
N M
customer reservation flt-instance

payment
method

1 N M 1
customer reservation flt-instance

payment
method

An objectified relationship type


supertypes and subtypes?
Male

x
passenger
Female

economy class first class


passenger passenger

business class
passenger
UNION entity types

company person

payer
property or entity type?

family
name

customer
relationship type or entity type?

flt-instance

reservation

customer
What’s the Result Type of a
Query?

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