Lecture 07

Week 05
 Understanding of Super Key, Candidate Key,
Primary Key, Composite Key
 I'll take example of an Employee table:
Employee (Employee ID, FullName, SSN, DeptID)

1. Candidate Key: are individual columns in a table

that qualifies for uniqueness of all the rows. Here in
Employee table EmployeeID & SSN are Candidate
keys.

2. Primary Key: is the columns you choose to

maintain uniqueness in a table. Here in Employee table
you can choose either EmployeeID or SSN columns,
EmployeeID is preferable choice, as SSN is a secure
value.
 Understanding of Super Key, Candidate Key,
Primary Key, Composite Key
3. Alternate Key: Candidate column other the Primary column,
like if EmployeeID is PK then SSN would be the Alternate key.
4. Super Key: If you add any other column/attribute to a Primary
Key then it become a super key, like EmployeeID + FullName is
a Super Key.
5. Composite Key: If a table do have a single columns that
qualifies for a Candidate key, then you have to select 2 or more
columns to make a row unique. Like if there is no EmployeeID
or SSN columns, then you can make FullName + DateOfBirth as
Composite primary Key. But still there can be a narrow chance
of duplicate row.
Relationship Types, Relationship Sets,
Roles, and Structural Constraints

 Relationship
– When an attribute of one entity type refers to
another entity type
– Represent references as relationships not attributes
 Relationships are the connections and interactions
between the entities instances, e.g., Program and
Student ETs are linked
Relationship Types, Sets, and Instances
 Relationship type R among n entity types E1,
E2, ..., En
– Defines a set of associations among entities from
these entity types
– Relationship instances ri
– Each ri associates n individual entities (e1, e2, ..., en)
– Each entity ej in ri is a member of entity set Ej
– Relationship instances
 Relationship set: set of all relationships (r1, r2….rn)
 Naming Relationships
 Up to you
 If there is no proper name of the association in the
system then participants’ names of abbreviations
are used
 STUDENT and CLASS have ENROLL
relationship
 However, it can also be named as STD_CLS
 Naming Relationships
 Choose names that convey meanings attached
to different relationship
 Nouns give rise to entity type names, Verbs
indicate names of relationship types
 Choose binary relationship names to make ER
diagram readable from left to right and from
top to bottom
Symbol for Relationships

DEPT EMP

STD BOOK
 Relationships Types
 Binary Relationship
– 2 Entities
 Ternary Relationship
– 3 Entities
 Unary Relationship
– 1 Entity
Binary Relationship Example

STD COURSE

STD BOOK

PROJ EMP
 Attributes of the Relationships
 The relationships can have their descriptive
attributes
 Where to place

GRADE

STD COURSE
 Ternary Relationships
 One that involves three entity types
 STUDENT-CLASS-FACULTY
 Instances in ordered triples
 Example {(S1013, MCS4, Adnan), (S1023, MCS3,
Fasih)}
STD COURSE
PROJ EMP

FACULTY
SKILL
 Unary Relationship
 An ET linked with itself, also called recursive
relationship
 Example Roommate, where STUDENT is linked
with STUDENT
Unary Relationship Examples

STD ROOMMATE

EMP CHAIR-
PERSON

EMP SPOUSE
 Constraints on Binary Relationship Types

 Number of instances of one entity type that can

possibly be related to instances of other entity type
 Cardinality ratio for a binary relationship
– Specifies maximum number of relationship instances
that entity can participate in
 Participation constraint
– Specifies whether existence of entity depends on its
being related to another entity
– Types: total (must participate)and partial (optional)
 Employee must have dept
 Employee may manage or not in any dept
 Types of Cardinalities

One to one
One to many
Many to one
Many to many
 Types of Cardinalities
One to one
DEPT
Chair
Person

One to many/ many to one

DEPT EMP

Many to many

EMP PROJ

PROJ EMP
 Cardinality Example

STD BOOK

EMP PROJ

STD COURSE

STD HOBBY
 Weak Entity Types

 Do not have key attributes of their own

– Identified by being related to specific entities
from another entity type
 Identifying relationship
– Relates a weak entity type to its owner
 Always has a total Cardinalities participation
constraint
 Data Modeling Tools

 A number of popular tools that cover conceptual

modeling and mapping into relational schema
design:
– Examples: ErWin, S-Designer (Enterprise
Application Suit), ER-Studio etc.
– Advantages: Serve as a documentation of
application requirements, easy user interface,
mostly graphics editor support.
 Practice :Questions
 Consider the ER diagram for part of a BANK database. Each bank can
have multiple branches, and each branch can have multiple accounts and
loans.
– a. List the strong (nonweak) entity types in the ER diagram.
– b. Is there a weak entity type? If so, give its name, partial key, and
identifying relationship.
– c. What constraints do the partial key and the identifying relationship
of the weak entity type specify in this diagram?
– d. List the names of all relationship types, and specify the (min, max)
constraint on each participation of an entity type in a relationship type.
Justify your choices.
– e. List concisely the user requirements that led to this ER schema
design.
– f. Suppose that every customer must have at least one account but is
restricted to at most two loans at a time, and that a bank branch cannot
have more than 1,000 loans. How does this show up on the (min,
max) constraints?
Consider the following environment of a university. There are academic
departments. Each department is identified by a 4 letter code, and has a
name, a chairperson, an office and a telephone extension. Each department
offers a set of courses. Each course is identified by the department code and
a 3 digit number, and has a title and number of units; each course may
require any number of prerequisite courses. Certain courses are currently
offered; an offering of a course is called a class. A class is identified by a 9
digit class number, is taught by a particular faculty, and meets 1-3 times a
week at the particular location. Each faculty is assigned to a single
department. Each faculty is identified by a social security number, and has a
name, a rank (e.g., assistant professor, associate professor, full professor),
and a telephone extension and a set of office hours. The chairperson of a
department is always assigned to that department. Each student is identified
by a SSN, and has a name, a major department, and an academic status (e.g.,
undergraduate, graduate, non-degree). Each student is currently enrolled in a
number of classes. For each course that the student had taken in the past, a
letter grade is available. All locations and office consist of a 3 letter building
code and a 3 digit room number. All telephone extensions are 4 digits.
ER- Diagram for Bank database