UML Diagram Types With Examples for Each Type of UML Diagrams

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The Complete Guide to UML Diagram Types with Examples

!2 February 2012 "Nishadha
UML stands for Unified Modeling Language which is used in object oriented software engineering. Although typically used in software engineering it is a rich language that can be used to model an application structures, behavior and even business processes. There are 14 UML diagram types to help you model these behavior. They can be divided into two main categories: structure diagrams and behavioral diagrams. All 14 UML diagram types are listed below with examples, brief introduction to them and also how they are used when modeling applications. You can draw UML diagrams online using our software, or check out some UML diagram examples at our diagramming community.

List of UML Diagram Types

Types of UML diagrams with structure diagrams coming first and behavioral diagrams starting from position 8. Click on any diagram type to visit that specific diagram types description. Class Diagram Component Diagram Deployment Diagram Object Diagram Package Diagram Profile Diagram Composite Structure Diagram Use Case Diagram Activity Diagram State Machine Diagram Sequence Diagram Communication Diagram Interaction Overview Diagram Timing Diagram

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UML Diagram Types

Structure diagrams show the things in a system being modeled. In a more technical term they show different objects in a system. Behavioral diagrams shows what should happen in a system. They describe how the objects interact with each other to create a functioning system.

Class Diagram
Class diagrams are arguably the most used UML diagram type. It is the main building block of any object oriented solution. It shows the classes in a system, attributes and operations of each class and the relationship between each class. In most modeling tools a class has three parts, name at the top, attributes in the middle and operations or methods at the bottom. In large systems with many classes related classes are grouped together to to create class diagrams. Different relationships between diagrams are show by different types of Arrows. Below is a image of a class diagram. Follow the link for more class diagram examples.

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UML Class Diagram with Relationships Component Diagram

A component diagram displays the structural relationship of components of a software system. These are mostly used when working with complex systems that has many components. Components communicate with each other using interfaces. The interfaces are linked using connectors. Below images shows a component diagram.

Simple Component Diagram with Interfaces Deployment Diagram

A deployment diagrams shows the hardware of your system and the software in those hardware. Deployment diagrams are useful when your software solution is deployed across multiple machines with each having a unique configuration. Below is an example deployment diagram.

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UML Deployment Diagram ( Click on the image to use it as a template ) Object Diagram
Object Diagrams, sometimes referred as Instance diagrams are very similar to class diagrams. As class diagrams they also show the relationship between objects but they use real world examples. They are used to show how a system will look like at a given time. Because there is data available in the objects they are often used to explain complex relationships between objects.

UML Object Diagram Example Package Diagram

As the name suggests a package diagrams shows the dependencies between different packages in a system. Check out this wiki article to learn more about the dependencies and elements found in package diagrams.

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Package Diagram in UML Profile Diagram

Profile diagram is a new diagram type introduced in UML 2. This is a diagram type that is very rarely used in any specification. For more detailed technical information about this diagram type check this link.

Basic UML Profile Diagram structure Composite Structure Diagram

Composite structure diagrams are used to show the internal structure of a class. For a detailed explanation of composite structure diagrams click here.

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A simple Composite Structure Diagram Use Case Diagram

Most known diagram type of the behavioral UML diagrams, Use case diagrams gives a graphic overview of the actors involved in a system, different functions needed by those actors and how these different functions are interacted. Its a great starting point for any project discussion because you can easily identify the main actors involved and the main processes of the system. Click through to read more about use case diagram elements and templates.

Use Case diagram showing Actors and main processes Activity Diagram
Activity diagrams represent workflows in an graphical way. They can be used to describe business workflow or the operational workflow of any component in a system. Sometimes activity diagrams are used as an alternative to State machine diagrams. Check out this wiki article to learn about symbols and usage of activity diagrams.

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Activity Diagrams with start, end, processes and decision points State Machine Diagram
State machine diagrams are similar to activity diagrams although notations and usage changes a bit. They are sometime known as state diagrams or start chart diagrams as well. These are very useful to describe the behavior of objects that act different according to the state they are at the moment. Below State machine diagram show the basic states and actions.

State Machine diagram in UML, sometime referred to as State or State chart diagram Sequence Diagram
Sequence diagrams in UML shows how object interact with each other and the order those interactions
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occur. Its important to note that they show the interactions for a particular scenario. The processes are represented vertically and interactions are show as arrows. This article explains the purpose and the basics of Sequence diagrams.

Sequence Diagrams in UML shows the interaction between two processes Communication Diagram
Communication diagram was called collaboration diagram in UML 1. It is similar to sequence diagrams but the focus is on messages passed between objects. The same information can be represented using a sequence diagram and different objects. Click here to understand the differences using an example.

Communication Diagram in UML Interaction Overview Diagram

Interaction overview diagrams are very similar to activity diagrams. While activity diagrams shows a sequence of processes Interaction overview diagrams shows a sequence of interaction diagrams. In simple term they can be called a collection of interaction diagrams and the order they happen. As mentioned be-

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fore there are seven types of interaction diagrams, so any one of them can be a node in an interaction overview diagram. ( img http://www.sa-depot.com/?page_id=645 )

Interaction overview diagram in UML Timing Diagram

Timing diagrams are very similar to sequence diagrams. They represent the behavior of objects in a given time frame. If its only one object the diagram is straight forward but if more then one objects are involved they can be used to show interactions of objects during that time frame as well. ( img http://blog.tangcs.com/2008/01/10/uml-2-diagrams/ )

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Timing Diagram in UML

Mentioned above are all the UML diagram types. The links given in each section explains the diagrams in more detail and covers the usage, symbols etc. UML offers many diagram types and sometimes two diagram can explain the same thing using different notations.Check this blog post to learn which UML diagram best suits you.If you have any questions or suggestions feel free to leave a comment.
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Tags : UML 2 diagram types, UML behavioral diagrams, UML diagram types, UML interaction diagrams

About the Author About Nishadha

Software engineer turned tech evangelist. I handle marketing stuff here at Creately including writing blog posts and handling social media accounts. In my spare time I love to read and travel. Check out my personal blog Rumbling Lankan where I write about online marketing stuff. View all posts by Nishadha !

74 thoughts on The Complete Guide to UML Diagram Types with Examples

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18 April 2012 at 4:32 am

Very Helpful Thanks""

Thomas

Pingback: Class Diagram Relationships UML

28 April 2012 at 3:18 pm

its very helpful n easy 2 understand,thanx a lot""""

Kakoli Das

12 May 2012 at 6:07 am

very helpful""""could have been better for beginners if each symbols were explained first".

sahil sharma

23 July 2012 at 9:05 pm

very helpful to me, thankzzzzzzzz

Remya S

15 August 2012 at 5:12 pm

its really helping us to provide a lot of info we are gaining from it". bittu

Pingback: Design Process Fall 2012 UML Diagrams

27 September 2012 at 11:55 pm

This is a very helpful overview with manyuseful links. Thanks alot for your effort. Stig Andersen

28 September 2012 at 10:05 pm

very helpful n eseasy to underatand

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sakhile tembe

2 October 2012 at 3:42 am

Its easy to understand" Thanks a lot"

Rupali Matkar

2 October 2012 at 11:40 pm

very helpful " satya

12 October 2012 at 5:53 pm

Looking for such documents for a long. Will also help me to conduct the training programs as well. Thanks a lot.

Arnab Chakraborty

13 October 2012 at 11:58 pm

simple and helpfull"""Thanks a lot.

anish

30 October 2012 at 8:46 pm

its very helpful to me""".

indhu

2 November 2012 at 6:46 am

Thankz its usefull 4 my studies.. thankz u".

T.Pugazhar asan

2 November 2012 at 9:05 pm

its easy to understand

m.nandhini

5 November 2012 at 12:55 pm

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its simple and understandable

kiran

6 November 2012 at 8:13 pm

awesome

zubair

8 November 2012 at 6:55 pm

very well explained daddyEleven

16 November 2012 at 5:50 pm

Thank you for the clear diagrams and explanations. Alexander Santiale

17 November 2012 at 6:30 am

like the way u in lina

18 November 2012 at 7:36 am

very good explained umer

20 November 2012 at 6:23 am

thankzzzz"vry informative and quick to learn!!!!

priyanka

30 November 2012 at 4:07 pm

it is good to see ramakanta

13 December 2012 at 10:17 pm

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super,its easy to understand for student

gowri

13 December 2012 at 10:17 pm

super and easy to understand gowri

14 December 2012 at 1:06 am

Good morning, Nishadha. I like the presentation of this information since it provides brief explanations and examples and links to greater detail. I did notice that a few of your shortcut links up top are broken. Near the very beginning of your UML diagram types page you provide a numbered list of diagram types. Each link is supposed to take me to the brief explanation and example, but numbers 7, 10, and 14 dont work. Number 13 actually takes me to the location for number 14. Overall, this is a convenient presentation. Thanks.

Clark

14 December 2012 at 4:44 pm

Good morning, Clark. I apologize for the mistakes. Thanks for taking the time to point them out. I have corrected them now. Enjoy the article and hope you got some value from it.

Nishadha

17 December 2012 at 10:59 pm

its really helpful " thanks

sunny kandola

29 December 2012 at 7:00 pm

nice one"really useful nishchala

5 January 2013 at 3:02 pm

Hello Nishadha, Thank you for the very nice article. I have a question, is it possible in any way that we can develop logic using UML for example we can develop a logic using MATLAB. Thanks.

Varun

7 January 2013 at 6:25 pm

Hi Varun,
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Nishadha

I havent used MATLAB so not sure what exactly you mean by develop logic using UML. Can you explains it a bit further ?

22 January 2013 at 3:36 am

hi nishadha, its very useful and very easy for understanding.. Thanks

Abi

25 January 2013 at 10:15 pm

Hello Nishadha, Thank you for the very nice article. Cheers!! PP

parikshita

30 January 2013 at 11:08 am

Thank you so much".

Puvanaraja n

1 February 2013 at 4:34 pm

thanks very helpful

gopinath

13 February 2013 at 10:42 am

really helpful" thank yu so much :):)

iswarya

6 March 2013 at 6:02 pm

thank u lots"its v helpful to understand:-)

krish

1 April 2013 at 10:17 pm

its very helpful uml diagram shivamtiwari

1 April 2013 at 10:29 pm

Its very helpful site

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shivam tiwari

6 April 2013 at 5:58 pm

thank u very much 4 ur article" its very helpful

nisha

20 April 2013 at 3:55 pm

Great explanation! My compliments. Simple and expressive.

Marzio

28 April 2013 at 10:50 pm

Hi, what would you suggest if you want to build a diagram in which would be displyed a student grades; minimum grades to to pass a exam; final result pass or fail

Miguel

5 May 2013 at 1:06 am

superb.this page is eye catching.kudos quality stuff

josphat

7 May 2013 at 9:47 am

Simple and easy to understand

Balambigai

14 May 2013 at 2:03 am

many types of UML diagrams

Kanker Serviks

information contained highly detailed easy to understand

28 May 2013 at 11:08 am

Hi Nishadha , I find this very helpful and easy to understand, but I have a question about the number of Diagram, I read this http:/www.omg.org/gettingstarted/what_is_uml.htm and I found ..representing the results using UML 2.0#s thirteen standard diagram types. 13 or 14 ?

Fabio

28 May 2013 at 2:29 pm

Hi Fabio,

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Nishadha

As I have listed down in the article, there are 14 UML diagram types in UML 2.0

6 June 2013 at 5:35 pm

thanks this article is very helpful and easy to understand"great work

Madeea

14 June 2013 at 8:54 am

Receive your great thanks.This is great work ,thank you!!! continue posting others articles like this. YOUR CUSTOMER

anonimous

15 July 2013 at 10:55 pm

That was pretty informative stuff, and you sire explained it pretty easily!

Shobhit

3 August 2013 at 5:11 am

many types of UML diagrams information contained highly detailed easy to understand

sachin

24 August 2013 at 7:36 pm

thksss a lottt

DIYA

1 September 2013 at 2:58 pm

Great stuff,Thanks a lot.

Avadhut

2 September 2013 at 4:39 pm

very helpful, u made my day!!!

Bindhu Madhuri

18 September 2013 at 5:40 pm

many types of UML diagrams information contained highly detailed easy to understand

mass milce

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22 September 2013 at 7:07 pm

Most Effective notes

Shahbaz

24 September 2013 at 5:32 pm

this very useful for the understanding the uml concept

suhas

4 October 2013 at 12:52 am

Very helpful for beginners and easy to include in interview facing process.

R.S.

9 October 2013 at 7:08 pm

hi man, very nice job. thx a lot~

York

7 November 2013 at 10:05 pm

This site is very helpful!

Carci

Thank You very much!!!!!

25 November 2013 at 9:31 pm

much impressive task for learning

Tinda

8 December 2013 at 2:31 am

Have seen many UML diagram before, however, the way to put it all together and characterize them is very important as the author has done it here. Very nice way to represent and identify them. Enjoyed it"

Bhavin

16 December 2013 at 6:54 am

i love your piece on UML, hope it help me with my exams tomorrow. Really appreciate your

felixi

generousity

24 December 2013 at 1:33 am

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4/3/14, 9:07 PM

its very useful".without book we easily got "idea

deepika

4 January 2014 at 12:29 am

Hi Nishadha ,Have seen many UML diagram before, however, the way to put it all together and characterize them is very important as the author has done it here. Very nice way to represent and identify them.thanks very thanks"of iran kelardasht good time

kiqobad

20 January 2014 at 8:05 pm

Thank you. Nice Article.

M.Prakash

22 January 2014 at 1:56 pm

Hi very help in business plan and safe time.

Robinson. moat

23 January 2014 at 9:20 pm

its very useful for me, Thanks a lot

saran

17 February 2014 at 2:46 am

tomorrow is my exam .. n it helps me a lot ..stay blessed

Maria Barket

2 March 2014 at 4:24 am

Very nice and clean explanation. UML made easy! Thank you.

Carla

11 March 2014 at 3:28 am

Quite useful even if we dont need all schemas erwik

Twitter:
erwik

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1 April 2014 at 1:16 pm

This is really an awesome article.. thanks buddy

Osama

3 April 2014 at 4:24 am

Hi Nishada, what a very helpful note you have given! I have a question. Pls can UML diagrams be used for the understanding of problem domain? if yes, please explain. Thanks. Kind regards

Bashir

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