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    Lecture 3 - Entity Relationship Model

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    Lecture 3 - Entity Relationship Model

    Uploaded by

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    Lecture 3_Entity Relationship Model

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    33 views51 pages

    Lecture 3 - Entity Relationship Model

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    Sofiya Yus

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    LECTURE 3

    ENTITY-RELATIONSHIP MODELING
    Muhammad Hamiz Mohd Radzi
    Faiqah Hafidzah Halim
    Content

    ■ Entity Types
    ■ Relationship Types
    ■ Attributes
    ■ Strong and Weak Entities
    ■ Attributes on Relationship
    ■ Structural Constraints
    ■ Enhanced ER Modeling
    ■ Specialization/Generalization
    Objectives
    ■ At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

    – Define entity, entity types and entity occurrence

    – Describe relationship types, occurrence, degree of relationship types, and recursive


    relationship.

    – Explain attribute, attribute domain, simple, composite, single, multivalued and


    derived attributes.

    – Describe the strong and weak entities.

    – Explain attribute on relationship


    – Explain the multiplicity, cardinality and participation

    – Describe fan and chasm trap

    – Define the enhance ER Modeling

    – Explain the concept of superclass/subclass, its relationship,


    specialization and generalization process, and the constraint of
    specialization/generalization.
    The entity relationship model

    • ERM is existed as to explore the different ways that entities can relate to
    each other as they always do in the real world.

    • ERM also is used to devise a way of recording, of diagramming, the entities


    and the ways in which they interrelate in the business environment.

    • The things that you need to know in order to construct the ERM are:

    • Entity

    • Attribute
    Entity

    • Entity - a “thing” or “object” in our environment that we want to keep


    track of.

    • Entity set - A collection of entities of the same type (e.g., all of the
    company’s employees).

    • Entity type - A group of objects with the same properties, which are
    identified by the enterprise as having an independent existence.

    • Entity occurrence - A uniquely identifiable object of an entity type.


    • Entity is in rectangular shape

    • Name of entity is in caps above the separator line.

    • For example:

    • Entity type = SALESPERSON


    Relationship Types

    • Set of meaningful associations among entity types.


    Relationship
    Each relationship type is given a name that
    Type
    describes its function.

    Relationship • Uniquely identifiable association, which includes


    occurrence one occurrence from each participating entity type
    Semantic Net View

    Diagrammatic View
    Degree of Relationship

    ■ It is defined as number of participating entities in relationship.

    ■ Relationship of degree :
    – two is binary
    – three is ternary
    – four is quaternary.
    Recursive Relationship

     Recursive relationship - A relationship type where the same entity type


    participates more than once in different roles.
    Entities associated through two distinct
    relationships with role names
    Attribute

    • Attribute - a property of, a characteristic of, or a fact that we know


    about an entity.

    • Some attributes have unique values within an entity set which we


    called as Primary Key (PK)

    • Attribute domain - The set of allowable values for one or more


    attributes.

    • Each attributes have its own domain of values, for example, Room Number
    must be an Integer range from 1000-1999
    • Simple attribute - An attribute composed of a single component with
    an independent existence.
    • It cannot be further subdivided into smaller components. For example
    Salary.

    • Composite attribute - An attribute composed of multiple components,


    each with an independent existence.
    • Some attributes can be further divided to yield smaller components. For
    example, address can be divided into Street, City, Postcode.

    • Single-valued attribute - An attribute that holds a single value for each


    occurrence of an entity type.
    • For example, Salesperson Number. Only one value can be attached to the
    attribute.
    • Multi-valued attribute - An attribute that holds
    multiple values for each occurrence of an
    entity type.

    • for example, branch number B003 has telephone


    numbers 0141-339-2178 and 0141-339-4439

    • Derived attribute - An attribute that represents


    a value that is derivable from the value of a
    related attribute or set of attributes, not
    necessarily in the same entity type.

    • For example, the total number of staff (totalStaff)


    attribute of the Staff entity type can be calculated
    by counting the total number of Staff entity
    occurrences.
    Strong and Weak Entity Types

    ■ Strong entity type: An entity type that is not existence-dependent on


    some other entity type.

    ■ Weak entity type: An entity type that is existence-dependent on some


    other entity type.
    Attributes on Relationship
    Structural Constraints
    ■ Main type of constraint on relationships is called multiplicity.

    ■ Multiplicity - number (or range) of possible occurrences of an entity type that may
    relate to a single occurrence of an associated entity type through a particular
    relationship.

    ■ Represents policies (called business rules) established by user or company.

    ■ The most common degree for relationships is binary.


    ■ Binary relationships are generally referred to as being:

    – one-to-one (1:1)
    – one-to-many (1:*)
    – many-to-many (*:*)
    Semantic net of Staff Manages
    Branch relationship type
    Multiplicity of Staff Manages Branch
    (1:1) relationship
    Semantic net of Staff Oversees
    PropertyForRent relationship type
    Multiplicity of Staff Oversees
    PropertyForRent (1:*) relationship type
    Semantic net of Newspaper Advertises
    PropertyForRent relationship type
    Multiplicity of Newspaper Advertises
    PropertyForRent (*:*) relationship
    Structural Constraints

    ■ Multiplicity for Complex Relationships


    – Number (or range) of possible occurrences of an entity type in an n-
    ary relationship when other (n-1) values are fixed.
    Semantic net of ternary Registers relationship with
    values for Staff and Branch entities fixed
    Multiplicity of ternary Registers relationship
    Summary of Multiplicity Constraints
    Structural Constraints
    ■ Multiplicity is made up of two types of restrictions on relationships:
    cardinality and participation.

    • Describes maximum number of possible


    Cardinality relationship occurrences for an entity
    participating in a given relationship type.

    • Determines whether all or only some


    Participation entity occurrences participate in a
    relationship.
    Multiplicity as cardinality and
    participation constraints
    Problems with ER Modeling

    ■ Problems may arise when designing a conceptual data model called connection
    traps.

    ■ Often due to a misinterpretation of the meaning of certain relationships.

    ■ Fan Traps: Where a model represents a relationship between entity types, but
    pathway between certain entity occurrences is ambiguous.

    ■ Chasm Trap: Where a model suggests the existence of a relationship between


    entity types, but pathway does not exist between certain entity occurrences.
    Fan Trap

    At which branch office does staff number SG37 work?


    Solution of Fan Trap

    SG37 works at branch B003.


    Chasm Trap

    At which branch office is property PA14 available?


    Solution of Chasm Trap
    The Enhanced Entity-Relationship
    ■
    Model
    Since 1980s there has been an increase in emergence of new database
    applications with more demanding requirements.

    ■ Basic concepts of ER modeling are not sufficient to represent requirements


    of newer, more complex applications.

    ■ Response is development of additional ‘semantic’ modeling concepts.

    ■ Semantic concepts are incorporated into the original ER model and called
    the Enhanced Entity-Relationship (EER) model.

    ■ Examples of additional concept of EER model is called specialization /


    generalization.
    Specialization / Generalization

    •An entity type that includes one or more


    Superclass distinct subgroupings of its occurrences.

    • A distinct subgrouping of occurrences of an


    Subclass entity type.

    • Superclass/subclass relationship is one-to-one (1:1).

    • Superclass may contain overlapping or distinct subclasses.

    • NOT ALL members of a superclass need be a member of a subclass.


    Specialization / Generalization

    • A e tity i a su lass represe ts sa e real


    Attribute world o je t as i super lass, a d ay
    Inheritance possess subclass-specific attributes, as well as
    those associated with the superclass.
    • Process of maximizing differences between
    Specialization members of an entity by identifying their
    distinguishing characteristics.
    • Process of minimizing differences between
    Generalization entities by identifying their common
    characteristics.
    AllStaff relation holding details of all
    staff
    Specialization/generalization of Staff
    entity into subclasses representing job
    roles
    Specialization/generalization of Staff entity
    into job roles and contracts of employment
    EER diagram with shared subclass and
    subclass with its own subclass
    Constraints on Specialization /
    Generalization

    • Determines whether every member in


    Participation superclass must participate as a
    constraint member of a subclass.
    • May be mandatory or optional.
    • Describes relationship between
    members of the subclasses and
    Disjoint indicates whether member of a
    constraint superclass can be a member of one, or
    more than one, subclass.
    • May be disjoint or nondisjoint.
    Constraints on Specialization /
    Generalization

    ■ There are four categories of constraints of specialization and


    generalization:

    – mandatory and disjoint (or)


    – optional and disjoint
    – mandatory and nondisjoint (and)  overlap
    – optional and nondisjoint.
    DreamHome worked example - Staff
    Superclass with Supervisor and Manager
    subclasses
    DreamHome worked example - Owner
    Superclass with PrivateOwner and
    BusinessOwner subclasses
    DreamHome worked example - Person
    superclass with Staff, PrivateOwner, and Client
    subclasses
    References

    Database Systems: A Practical Approach to Design, Implementation, and


    Management, Thomas Connolly and Carolyn Begg, 5th Edition, 2010,
    Pearson.

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