Database Design Process

• Two main activities:

• Database design
• Applications design
• Database design focuses to design the conceptual schema for a
database application
• Applications design focuses on the programs and interfaces that
access the database
Database Design Process
 Example COMPANY Database
• We need to create a database schema design based on the
following (simplified) requirements of the COMPANY
Database:
• The company is organized into DEPARTMENTs. Each department
has a name, number and an employee who manages the
department. We keep track of the start date of the department
manager. A department may have several locations.
• Each department controls a number of PROJECTs. Each project has
a unique name, unique number and is located at a single location.
 Example COMPANY Database
• We store each EMPLOYEE’s social security number, address, salary,
sex, and birthdate.
• Each employee works for one department but may work on several
projects.
• We keep track of the number of hours per week that an employee
currently works on each project.
• We also keep track of the direct supervisor of each employee.
• Each employee may have a number of DEPENDENTs.
• For each dependent, we keep track of their name, sex, birthdate, and
relationship to the employee.
 ER Model Concepts
• Entities and Attributes
• Entities are specific objects or things in the mini-world that are represented in the
database.
• For example the EMPLOYEE John Smith, the Research DEPARTMENT, the ProductX
PROJECT
• Attributes are properties used to describe an entity.
• For example an EMPLOYEE entity may have the attributes Name, SSN, Address, Sex,
BirthDate
• A specific entity will have a value for each of its attributes.
• For example a specific employee entity may have Name='John Smith',
SSN='123456789', Address ='731, Fondren, Houston, TX', Sex='M', BirthDate='09-JAN-
55‘
• Each attribute has a value set (or data type) associated with it – e.g. integer, string,
subrange, enumerated type.
 Types of Attributes
• Simple
• Each entity has a single atomic value for the attribute. For example, SSN or Sex.
• Composite
• The attribute may be composed of several components. For example:
• Address(Apt#, House#, Street, City, State, ZipCode, Country), or
• Name(FirstName, MiddleName, LastName).
• Composition may form a hierarchy where some components are themselves
composite.
• Multi-valued
• An entity may have multiple values for that attribute. For example, Color of a CAR or
PreviousDegrees of a STUDENT.
• Denoted as {Color} or {PreviousDegrees}.
 Types of Attributes
• In general, composite and multi-valued attributes may be
nested arbitrarily to any number of levels, although this is
rare.
• For example, PreviousDegrees of a STUDENT is a composite multi-
valued attribute denoted by {PreviousDegrees (College, Year,
Degree, Field)}
• Multiple PreviousDegrees values can exist
• Each has four subcomponent attributes:
• College, Year, Degree, Field
Example of a Composite Attribute
 Entity Types and Key Attributes
• Entities with the same basic attributes are grouped or
typed into an entity type.
• For example, the entity type EMPLOYEE and PROJECT.
• An attribute of an entity type for which each entity
must have a unique value is called a key attribute of the
entity type.
• For example, SSN of EMPLOYEE.
 Entity Types and Key Attributes
• A key attribute may be composite.
• VehicleTagNumber is a key of the CAR entity type with
components (Number, State).
• An entity type may have more than one key.
• The CAR entity type may have two keys:
• VehicleIdentificationNumber (popularly called VIN)
• VehicleTagNumber (Number, State), aka license plate number.
• Each key is underlined
 Displaying an Entity type
• In ER diagrams, an entity type is displayed in a rectangular box
• Attributes are displayed in ovals
• Each attribute is connected to its entity type
• Components of a composite attribute are connected to the oval
representing the composite attribute
• Each key attribute is underlined
• Multivalued attributes displayed in double ovals
 Entity Type CAR with two keys and a corresponding
Entity Set
• Each entity type will have a collection of
entities stored in the database Called the
entity set
• Shows three CAR entity instances in the
entity set for CAR
• Same name (CAR) used to refer to both the
entity type and the entity set
• Entity set is the current state of the
entities of that type that are stored in the
database
 Initial Design of Entity Types for the COMPANY
Database Schema
• Based on the requirements, we can identify four initial entity types in
the COMPANY database:
• DEPARTMENT
• PROJECT
• EMPLOYEE
• DEPENDENT
• Their initial design is shown on the following slide
• The initial attributes shown are derived from the requirements
description
Initial Design of Entity Types:
EMPLOYEE, DEPARTMENT, PROJECT, DEPENDENT
 Refining the initial design by introducing relationships
• The initial design is typically not complete
• Some aspects in the requirements will be represented as
relationships
• ER model has three main concepts:
• Entities (and their entity types and entity sets)
• Attributes (simple, composite, multivalued)
• Relationships (and their relationship types and relationship sets)
 Relationships and Relationship Types
• A relationship relates two or more distinct entities with a specific
meaning.
• For example, EMPLOYEE John Smith works on the ProductX PROJECT, or
EMPLOYEE Franklin Wong manages the Research DEPARTMENT.
• Relationships of the same type are grouped or typed into a
relationship type.
• For example, the WORKS_ON relationship type in which EMPLOYEEs and
PROJECTs participate, or the MANAGES relationship type in which
EMPLOYEEs and DEPARTMENTs participate.
• The degree of a relationship type is the number of participating entity
types.
• Both MANAGES and WORKS_ON are binary relationships.
Relationship instances of the WORKS_FOR N:1
relationship between EMPLOYEE and
DEPARTMENT
Relationship instances of the M:N WORKS_ON
relationship between EMPLOYEE and PROJECT
 Relationship type vs. Relationship set
• Relationship Type:
• Is the schema description of a relationship
• Identifies the relationship name and the participating entity types
• Also identifies certain relationship constraints
• Relationship Set:
• The current set of relationship instances represented in the
database
• The current state of a relationship type
 Relationship type vs. Relationship set
• Each instance in the set relates individual participating
entities – one from each participating entity type
• In ER diagrams, we represent the relationship type as follows:
• Diamond-shaped box is used to display a relationship type
• Connected to the participating entity types via straight lines
 Refining the COMPANY database schema by
introducing relationships
• By examining the requirements, six relationship types are identified
• All are binary relationships( degree 2)
• Listed below with their participating entity types:
• WORKS_FOR (between EMPLOYEE, DEPARTMENT)
• MANAGES (also between EMPLOYEE, DEPARTMENT)
• CONTROLS (between DEPARTMENT, PROJECT)
• WORKS_ON (between EMPLOYEE, PROJECT)
• SUPERVISION (between EMPLOYEE (as subordinate), EMPLOYEE (as
supervisor))
• DEPENDENTS_OF (between EMPLOYEE, DEPENDENT)
ER DIAGRAM – Relationship Types are:
WORKS_FOR, MANAGES, WORKS_ON, CONTROLS, SUPERVISION, DEPENDENTS_OF
 Discussion on Relationship Types
• In the refined design, some attributes from the initial entity types are refined
into relationships:
• Manager of DEPARTMENT -> MANAGES
• Works_on of EMPLOYEE -> WORKS_ON
• Department of EMPLOYEE -> WORKS_FOR
• etc
• In general, more than one relationship type can exist between the same
participating entity types
• MANAGES and WORKS_FOR are distinct relationship types between EMPLOYEE and
DEPARTMENT
• Different meanings and different relationship instances.
 Recursive Relationship Type
• An relationship type whose with the same participating entity type in
distinct roles
• Example: the SUPERVISION relationship
• EMPLOYEE participates twice in two distinct roles:
• supervisor (or boss) role
• supervisee (or subordinate) role
• Each relationship instance relates two distinct EMPLOYEE entities:
• One employee in supervisor role
• One employee in supervisee role
 Weak Entity Types
• An entity that does not have a key attribute
• A weak entity must participate in an identifying relationship type with an owner or
identifying entity type
• Entities are identified by the combination of:
• A partial key of the weak entity type
• The particular entity they are related to in the identifying entity type
• Example:
• A DEPENDENT entity is identified by the dependent’s first name, and the specific
EMPLOYEE with whom the dependent is related
• Name of DEPENDENT is the partial key
• DEPENDENT is a weak entity type
• EMPLOYEE is its identifying entity type via the identifying relationship type
DEPENDENT_OF
 Constraints on Relationships
• Constraints on Relationship Types
• (Also known as ratio constraints)
• Cardinality Ratio (specifies maximum participation)
• One-to-one (1:1)
• One-to-many (1:N) or Many-to-one (N:1)
• Many-to-many (M:N)
• Existence Dependency Constraint (specifies minimum participation) (also
called participation constraint)
• zero (optional participation, not existence-dependent)
• one or more (mandatory participation, existence-dependent)
Many-to-one (N:1) Relationship
Many-to-many (M:N) Relationship
 Displaying a Recursive Relationship
• In a recursive relationship type.
• Both participations are same entity type
in different roles.
• For example, SUPERVISION relationships
between EMPLOYEE (in role of
supervisor or boss) and (another)
EMPLOYEE (in role of subordinate or
worker).
• In following figure, first role participation
labeled with 1 and second role participation
labeled with 2.
• In ER diagram, need to display role names to
distinguish participations.
Recursive Relationship Type is: SUPERVISION
(participation role names are shown)
 Attributes of Relationship types
• A relationship type can have attributes:
• For example, HoursPerWeek of WORKS_ON
• Its value for each relationship instance describes the number of
hours per week that an EMPLOYEE works on a PROJECT.
• A value of HoursPerWeek depends on a particular (employee, project)
combination
• Most relationship attributes are used with M:N relationships
• In 1:N relationships, they can be transferred to the entity type on the N-
side of the relationship
Example Attribute of a Relationship Type:
Hours of WORKS_ON
 Notation for Constraints on
Relationships
• Cardinality ratio (of a binary relationship): 1:1, 1:N, N:1, or
M:N
• Shown by placing appropriate numbers on the relationship edges.
• Participation constraint (on each participating entity type):
total (called existence dependency) or partial.
• Total shown by double line, partial by single line.
• NOTE: These are easy to specify for Binary Relationship Types.
 Alternative (min, max) notation for relationship
structural constraints:
• Specified on each participation of an entity type E in a relationship type R
• Specifies that each entity e in E participates in at least min and at most max relationship instances in R
• Default(no constraint): min=0, max=n (signifying no limit)
• Must have minmax, min0, max 1
• Derived from the knowledge of mini-world constraints
• Examples:
• A department has exactly one manager and an employee can manage at most one department.
• Specify (0,1) for participation of EMPLOYEE in MANAGES
• Specify (1,1) for participation of DEPARTMENT in MANAGES
• An employee can work for exactly one department but a department can have any number of employees.
• Specify (1,1) for participation of EMPLOYEE in WORKS_FOR
• Specify (0,n) for participation of DEPARTMENT in WORKS_FOR
The (min,max) notation for relationship constraints
COMPANY ER Schema Diagram using (min, max)
notation
 Alternative diagrammatic notation
• ER diagrams is one popular example for displaying database schemas
• Many other notations exist in the literature and in various database
design and modeling tools
• Appendix A illustrates some of the alternative notations that have
been used
• UML class diagrams is representative of another way of displaying ER
concepts that is used in several commercial design tools
Summary of Notation for ER Diagrams
 UML class diagrams
• Represent classes (similar to entity types) as large rounded boxes
with three sections:
• Top section includes entity type (class) name
• Second section includes attributes
• Third section includes class operations (operations are not in basic ER
model)
• Relationships (called associations) represented as lines connecting
the classes
• Other UML terminology also differs from ER terminology
• Used in database design and object-oriented software design
• UML has many other types of diagrams for software design
UML class diagram for COMPANY database schema
 Relationships of Higher Degree
• Relationship types of degree 2 are called binary
• Relationship types of degree 3 are called ternary and of degree n are
called n-ary
• In general, an n-ary relationship is not equivalent to n binary
relationships
• Constraints are harder to specify for higher-degree relationships (n >
2) than for binary relationships
 Discussion of n-ary relationships (n > 2)
• In general, 3 binary relationships can represent different information
than a single ternary relationship (see Figure a and b on next slide)
• If needed, the binary and n-ary relationships can all be included in
the schema design (see a and b, where all relationships convey
different meanings)
• In some cases, a ternary relationship can be represented as a weak
entity if the data model allows a weak entity type to have multiple
identifying relationships (and hence multiple owner entity types) (see
Figure c)
Example of Ternary Relationship
 Discussion of n-ary relationships (n > 2)
• If a particular binary relationship can be derived from a
higher-degree relationship at all times, then it is redundant
• For example, the TAUGHT_DURING binary relationship in
Figure (see next slide) can be derived from the ternary
relationship OFFERS (based on the meaning of the
relationships)
Another example of a ternary
relationship
 Displaying constraints on higher-degree relationships

• The (min, max) constraints can be displayed on the edges – however,

they do not fully describe the constraints
• Displaying a 1, M, or N indicates additional constraints
• An M or N indicates no constraint
• A 1 indicates that an entity can participate in at most one relationship
instance that has a particular combination of the other participating entities
• In general, both (min, max) and 1, M, or N are needed to describe
fully the constraints
 Some of the Currently Available Automated
Database Design Tools
COMPANY TOOL FUNCTIONALITY
Embarcadero ER Studio Database Modeling in ER and IDEF1X
Technologies
DB Artisan Database administration, space and security management
Oracle Developer 2000/Designer 2000 Database modeling, application development
Popkin Software System Architect 2001 Data modeling, object modeling, process modeling,
structured analysis/design
Platinum Enterprise Modeling Suite: Erwin, Data, process, and business component modeling
(Computer BPWin, Paradigm Plus
Associates)
Persistence Inc. Pwertier Mapping from O-O to relational model
Rational (IBM) Rational Rose UML Modeling & application generation in C++/JAVA
Resolution Ltd. Xcase Conceptual modeling up to code maintenance
Sybase Enterprise Application Suite Data modeling, business logic modeling
Visio Visio Enterprise Data modeling, design/reengineering Visual Basic/C++