3&4

Chapters 3 and 4
Drawing ERDs

October 16, 2006

Week 3

1
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Practice … (correction)

• Each of the MegaCo Corporation’s divisions is composed of many

departments. Each of those departments has many employees
assigned to it, but each employee works for only one department. Each
department is managed by one employee, and each of those managers
can manage only one department at a time.

M
EMPLOYEE

is assigned to manages

1
1 M 1
DEPARTMENT is composed of DIVISION

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A little from Chapters 3 and 4

• Good design begins by identifying

appropriate entities and attributes and the
relationships among the entities
• Chapter 3: Section 3.2 Keys (pages 64-69)
• Chapter 4 All

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The Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD)

• ERD represents the conceptual database as
viewed by end user
• ERDs depict the ER model’s three main
components:
– Entities - anything about which data are to be
collected and stored (i.e. people, events)
– Attributes - characteristics of an entity
– Relationships - describe an association
among (two or more) entities (1:1, 1:M, M:N)

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Tables and Keys

• Tables are basic building blocks of a

relational database
• Keys are central to the use of relational tables

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Tables and Their Characteristics

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Keys

• Consists of one or more attributes that determine

other attributes
• Primary key (PK) is an attribute (or a combination of
attributes) that uniquely identifies any given row
– Composite key - Composed of more than one attribute
• Foreign key (FK)
– An attribute whose values match primary key values in
the related table
• Key’s role is based on determination
– If you know the value of attribute A, you can look up
(determine) the value of attribute B

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Keys (continued)

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Keys (continued)
• Nulls:
– No data entry
– Not permitted in primary key
– Should be avoided in other attributes
– Can represent
• An unknown attribute value
• A known, but missing, attribute value
• A “not applicable” condition
– Can create problems when functions such as
COUNT, AVERAGE, and SUM are used
– Can create logical problems when relational tables
are linked

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Keys (continued)

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Entities and Instances

STUDENT

• Each entity ultimately becomes a table in a

database implementation
• Each instance of an entity is a record or a row in a
table in a database
• Entity name, a noun, is usually written in capital
letters
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Attributes

• Attributes ultimately become the fields in a database

implementation
• Attributes are represented by ovals and are
connected to entity rectangle with a line
• Primary Key is underlined in the ERD
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Types of Attributes
• Key attribute is a unique identifier
• Composite attribute can be subdivided
• Simple attribute cannot be subdivided
• Single-value attribute can have only a single value
• Multivalued attributes can have many values
– A student may have more that one phone number; a home-
phone number and a mobile-phone number

• Derived attribute’s value may be calculated (derived)

from other attributes
– Need not be physically stored in a database

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Multivalued Attributes

Represented by a
double line
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Resolving Multivalued Attribute Problems

• Although conceptual model can handle M:N

relationships and multivalued attributes, you
should not implement them in relational DBMS
– Within original entity, create several new
attributes, one for each of the original multivalued
attribute’s components
• Can lead to major structural problems in table
– Create new entity composed of original
multivalued attribute’s components

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Resolving Multivalued Attribute Problems
(continued)

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Derived Attributes (continued)

Represented by a
dashed line
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Connectivity and Cardinality

• Connectivity
– Used to describe the relationship classification
(based on participation)
• Cardinality
– Expresses minimum and maximum number of
entity occurrences associated with one
occurrence of related entity
• Established by very concise statements
known as business rules
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Cardinality

M N
EMPLOYEE is assigned to PROJECT

Connectivity

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Relationship Participation

• Optional participation
– One entity occurrence does not require
corresponding entity occurrence in particular
relationship
• Mandatory participation
– One entity occurrence requires corresponding
entity occurrence in particular relationship

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Relationship Strength

• Weak (non-identifying) relationships

– Exists if PK of related entity does not contain
PK component of parent entity
• Strong (Identifying) Relationships
– Exists when PK of related entity contains PK
component of parent entity

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Weak (Non-Identifying) Relationships

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Strong (Identifying) Relationships

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Weak Entities

• Weak entity meets two conditions

– Existence-dependent
• Cannot exist without entity with which it has a
relationship
– Has primary key that is partially or totally derived
from parent entity in relationship
• Database designer usually determines whether
an entity can be described as weak based on
business rules

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Weak Entities (continued)

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Relationship Degree

• Indicates number of entities or participants

associated with a relationship
• Unary relationship
– Association is maintained within single entity
• Binary relationship
– Two entities are associated
• Ternary relationship
– Three entities are associated

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Relationship Degree (continued)

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Composite Entities

• Also known as bridge entities

• Composed of primary keys of each of the
entities to be connected
• May also contain additional attributes that
play no role in connective process
• Used to resolve M:N relationships

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Mandatory
participation

1, N, M

Source: http://io.uwinnipeg.ca/~rmcfadye/2914/ERD/images/1entit4.gif
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Practice ...

• An airplane has a registration number, type, number of economy class

seats, number of business class seats and the year of production

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Practice ...

• Each text book has a unique ISBN (International Standard Book

Number), and contains several chapters. Each chapter has a chapter
number (unique within a book), the number of pages and the number of
references. A chapter covers a single topic, but the same topic may be
covered in various books.

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Practice ...

• Sometimes students work in groups. Each group has a unique number

and students have their student ids. A student who works in a group
has a specific role within that group. The student may have different
roles in various groups he/she belongs to.

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