ER MODEL

I. Entity relationship model is also known as ER model and it is a high level model.
II. This method is used to define the data elements and relationship for a specified
system.
III. It develops a conceptual design for the database.
IV. In ER modeling, the database structure is portrayed as a diagram called an entity-
relationship diagram.
V. It is a non-technical method, which is free from ambiguities .
VI. It provides a standard and a logical way of visualizing the data.
ELEMENTS OF ER MODEL
ENTITY
• An entity is an object or component of data. An entity is
represented as rectangle in an ER diagram
• In an ER-diagram, an entity is represented as rectangles.
• For example: In the following ER diagram we have two
entities Student and College and these two entities have
many to one relationship as many students study in a single
college.

STUDENT STUDY COLLEGE

 ENTITY TYPES
• Entity types can be classified as being strong or weak entity.
• An entity type that is not existence-dependent on some other entity type is
called strong entity type.
• The strong entity type has a characteristic that each entity occurrence is
uniquely identifiable using the primary key attribute(s) of that entity type.
• An entity type that is existence-dependent on some other entity type is
called weak entity type.
• The week entity type has a characteristic that each entity occurrence
cannot be uniquely identifiable using only the attributes associated with
that entity type.
WEAK ENTITY
• An entity that cannot be uniquely identified by its own attributes and
relies on the relationship with other entity is called weak entity. The
weak entity is represented by a double rectangle. For example – a
bank account cannot be uniquely identified without knowing the bank
to which the account belongs, so bank account is a weak entity.

BANK ACCOUNT BANK

ATTRIBUTES
• Entity types have Attributes (or properties) which associate each
entity with a value from a domain of values for that attribute.

SIMPLE ATTRIBUTE

MULTI VALUED

COMPOSITE ATTRIBUTE

DERIVED

SINGLE VALUED
KEY ATTRIBUTE
KEY ATTRIBUTE
• A key attribute can uniquely identify an entity from an entity set. For
example, student roll number can uniquely identify a student from a
set of students. Key attribute is represented by oval same as other
attributes
ROLL NO NAME

AGE

STUDENT
SINGLE VS COMPOSITE
ATTRIBUTE
• A simple attribute cannot be subdivided. – examples - Age, Gender,
and Marital status.
• A composite attribute can be further subdivided to yield additional
attributes. – examples – address, street, city, state, zip, house number.

PIN

STATE
STUDENT ADDRESS

COUNTRY
 DERIVED ATTRIBUTE
• Derived attribute is not physically stored within the database instead,
it is derived by using an algorithm.

• Example 2: Late Charge of 2% can be computed by using Invoice Amt

Late Charge =Invoice Amt * 0.02.

• Example 3: HRA and DA are derived attributes as they depend upon

basic pay of an employee for calculation.
SINGLE VS MULTI VALUED
ATTRIBUTE
• Single valued attributes can have only a single (atomic) value.
• Examples: A person can have only one social security number.
• A manufactured part can have only one serial number.
• A single-valued attribute is not necessarily a simple attribute
• Multi-valued attributes can have many values.
• Examples: A person may have several college degrees.
• A person may have more than one mobile numbers.
RELATIONSHIPS
• A relationship represents some association between two or more
entities. It defines the manner in which the entities interact.
• The entities that are enrolled in a relationship are known as
Participant.
• The relationships are generally given names. The may include one or
more entities. The degree of relationship is defined by the number of
participants in the relationship .
• The relationship between two entities is called binary relationship.
• The relationship between three entities is called ternary relationship.
ONE TO ONE RELATIONSHIP
• When a single instance of an entity is associated with a single instance
of another entity then it is called one to one relationship. For
example, a person has only one passport and a passport is given to
one person.

BOY HAS PASSPORT

ONE TO MANY
• When a single instance of an entity is associated with more than one
instances of another entity then it is called one to many relationship.
For example – a customer can place many orders but a order cannot
be placed by many customers.

PLACED
CUSTOMER ORDER
MANY TO ONE RELATIONSHIP
• When more than one instances of an entity is associated with a single
instance of another entity then it is called many to one relationship.
For example – many students can study in a single college but a
student cannot study in many colleges at the same time.

STUD
STUDENT Y COLLEGE
MANY TO MANY RELATIONSHIP
• When more than one instances of an entity is associated with more
than one instances of another entity then it is called many to many
relationship. For example, a can be assigned to many projects and a
project can be assigned to many students.

STUDENT ASSIGNED PROJECT