The document discusses an enhanced entity-relationship (EER) model, which is an extension of the ER model that can model more complex relationships. It describes some key concepts of an EER model including generalization, specialization, categories/unions, and aggregation. Generalization combines lower-level entities into a higher-level entity, while specialization breaks an entity into sub-classes. Aggregation represents a relationship between an object and its parts. The EER model allows modeling these more complex relationships compared to a basic ER model.
The document discusses an enhanced entity-relationship (EER) model, which is an extension of the ER model that can model more complex relationships. It describes some key concepts of an EER model including generalization, specialization, categories/unions, and aggregation. Generalization combines lower-level entities into a higher-level entity, while specialization breaks an entity into sub-classes. Aggregation represents a relationship between an object and its parts. The EER model allows modeling these more complex relationships compared to a basic ER model.
The document discusses an enhanced entity-relationship (EER) model, which is an extension of the ER model that can model more complex relationships. It describes some key concepts of an EER model including generalization, specialization, categories/unions, and aggregation. Generalization combines lower-level entities into a higher-level entity, while specialization breaks an entity into sub-classes. Aggregation represents a relationship between an object and its parts. The EER model allows modeling these more complex relationships compared to a basic ER model.
The document discusses an enhanced entity-relationship (EER) model, which is an extension of the ER model that can model more complex relationships. It describes some key concepts of an EER model including generalization, specialization, categories/unions, and aggregation. Generalization combines lower-level entities into a higher-level entity, while specialization breaks an entity into sub-classes. Aggregation represents a relationship between an object and its parts. The EER model allows modeling these more complex relationships compared to a basic ER model.
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Extended E-R Model
Enhanced entity-relationship models, also known as extended entity-relationship models, are
advanced database diagrams very similar to regular ER diagrams. Enhanced ERDs are high-level models that represent the requirements and complexities of complex databases. EER is a high-level data model that incorporates the extensions to the original ER model.
It is a diagrammatic technique for displaying the following concepts
Sub Class and Super Class Specialization and Generalization Aggregation
Specialization and Generalization
1. Generalization Generalization is the process of generalizing the entities which contain the properties of all the generalized entities. It is a bottom approach, in which two lower level entities combine to form a higher level entity. Generalization is the reverse process of Specialization. It defines a general entity type from a set of specialized entity type. It minimizes the difference between the entities by identifying the common features.
For example:
In the above example, Tiger, Lion, Elephant can all be generalized as Animals.
2. Specialization Specialization is a process that defines a group entities which is divided into sub groups based on their characteristic. It is a top down approach, in which one higher entity can be broken down into two lower level entity. It maximizes the difference between the members of an entity by identifying the unique characteristic or attributes of each member. It defines one or more sub class for the super class and also forms the superclass/subclass relationship.
For example
In the above example, Employee can be specialized as Developer or Tester, based on what role they play in an Organization.
C. Category or Union Category represents a single super class or sub class relationship with more than one super class. It can be a total or partial participation. For example Car booking, Car owner can be a person, a bank (holds a possession on a Car) or a company. Category (sub class) → Owner is a subset of the union of the three super classes → Company, Bank, and Person. A Category member must exist in at least one of its super classes. D. Aggregation a feature of the entity relationship model that allows a relationship set to participate in another relationship set. This is indicated on an ER diagram by drawing a dashed box around the aggregation.
Aggregation is a process that represents a relationship between a whole object and its component parts. It abstracts a relationship between objects and viewing the relationship as an object. It is a process when two entity is treated as a single entity.
Aggregation is an abstraction through which
relationships are treated as higher- level entities. The best way to model a situation such as the one just described is to use aggregation. Thus, for our example, we regard the relationship set works-on (relating the entity sets employee, branch, and job) as a higher-level entity set called works-on. Such an entity set is treated in the same manner as is any other entity set. We can then create a binary relationship manages between works-on and manager to represent who manages what tasks Constraints Disjointness constraints - You will need to decide whether a supertype instance may simultaneously be a member of two or more subtypes. The disjoint rule forces subclasses to have disjoint sets of entities. The overlap rule forces a subclass (also known as a supertype instance) to have overlapping sets of entities. Completeness constraints - decide whether a supertype instance must also be a member of at least one subtype. The total specialization rule demands that every entity in the superclass belong to some subclass. Just as with a regular ERD, total specialization is symbolized with a double line connection between entities. The partial specialization rule allows an entity to not belong to any of the subclasses. It is represented with a single line connection. Subtype Discriminators A subtype discriminator is an attribute of the supertype that indicates an entity's subtype. The attribute's values are what determine the target subtype. Disjoint subtypes - simple attributes that must have alternative values to indicate any possible subtypes. Overlapping subtypes - composite attributes whose subparts pertain to various subtypes. Each subpart has a Boolean value that indicates whether or not the instance belongs to the associated subtype.
