1

Reducing ER-Diagrams to Tables

Problem: Consider the entities of Project,
General Task and Employee in a project
management or job shop organization.
Specify the relations with typical attributes
to represent these entities and the
relationships between them. [MH91]
EMPLOYEE
SSN
Bdate
Name
Sex
Address
Salary
COMPANY DATABSE
DEPARTMENT
Number
Name
Location
Works_For
N
1
Manages
StartDate
1 1
Supervision
1
supervisee
supervisor
N
Dependents
EMP_DEP
Bdate
Name
Sex
Relationship
N
1
PROJECT
Name
Number
Location
Works_On
Hours
CONTROLS
N N
1
M
Dependents
Bdate
DeName
Sex
Relationship
PROJECT
Name
PNo
Location
Dependents-Of
Works_On
Hours
N
M
N
1
N
Supervision
CONTROLS
Manages
StartDate
COMPANY DATABSE
1 N
1
1
Works_For
EMPLOYEE
SSN
Bdate
Name
Sex
Address
Salary
N
DEPARTMENT
DNo
DName
DLocation
1
1
Tabular Representation of the
ER EER Diagram [EN94]
STEP 1:
For each regular entity type E in the ER schema,
create a relation R that includes all the simple
attributes of E.
Include only the simple component attributes of a
composite attribute.
Choose one of the key attributes of E as primary
key for R.
If the chosen key of E is composite, the set of simple
attributes that form it will together from the primary
key of R.
Dependents
Bdate
DeName
Sex
Relationship
PROJECT
Name
PNo
Location
Dependents-Of
Works_On
Hours
N
M
N
1
N
Supervision
CONTROLS
Manages
StartDate
COMPANY DATABSE
1 N
1
1
Works_For
EMPLOYEE
SSN
Bdate
Name
Sex
Address
Salary
N
DEPARTMENT
DNo
DName
DLocation
1
1
2
EMPLOYEE
EMPLOYEE
SSN
Bdate
Name
Sex
Address
Salary
FName
MI
LName
Manila 1950/02/02 12000 F Maria B. Santos 02
Makati 1960/01/01 10000 M Juan A. Cruz 01
Address Bdate Salary Sex LName MI FName SSN
Primary key
Dependents
Bdate
DeName
Sex
Relationship
PROJECT
Name
PNo
Location
Dependents-Of
Works_On
Hours
N
M
N
1
N
Supervision
CONTROLS
Manages
StartDate
COMPANY DATABSE
1 N
1
1
Works_For
EMPLOYEE
SSN
Bdate
Name
Sex
Address
Salary
N
DEPARTMENT
DNo
DName
DLocation
1
1
DEPARTMENT
DNo
Name
Location
Name DNo
Primary Key
Multi-valued attribute
Dependents
Bdate
DeName
Sex
Relationship
PROJECT
Name
PNo
Location
Dependents-Of
Works_On
Hours
N
M
N
1
N
Supervision
CONTROLS
Manages
StartDate
COMPANY DATABSE
1 N
1
1
Works_For
EMPLOYEE
SSN
Bdate
Name
Sex
Address
Salary
N
DEPARTMENT
DNo
DName
DLocation
1
1
Location Name PNo
PROJECT
Name
PNo
Location
Primary Key
STEP 2:
For each weak entity type Win the ER schema with
owner entity type E, create a relation R and include all
simple attributes (or simple components of composite
attributes) of W as attributes of R.
In addition, include as foreign key attributes of R
the primary key attributes(s) of the relation(s) that
correspond to the owner entity type(s). This handles
the identifying relationship type of W.
The primary key of R is the combination of the
primary key(s) of the owner(s) and the partial key of
the weak entity type W, if any.
3
Dependents
Bdate
DeName
Sex
Relationship
PROJECT
Name
PNo
Location
Dependents-Of
Works_On
Hours
N
M
N
1
N
Supervision
CONTROLS
Manages
StartDate
COMPANY DATABSE
1 N
1
1
Works_For
EMPLOYEE
SSN
Bdate
Name
Sex
Address
Salary
N
DEPARTMENT
DNo
DName
DLocation
1
1
DEPENDENTS
Son 1990/04/04 M Jun Santos 02
Mother 1940/03/01 F Clara Cruz 01
Relationship Bdate Sex DeName ESSN
Foreign key
Dependents
Bdate
Sex
Relationship
DeName
Primary key
STEP 3:
For each binary 1:1 relationship type R in the
ER schema, identify the relations S and T that
correspond to the entity types participating in
R.
Choose one of the relations (let say S) and
include as foreign key in S the primary key
of T. It is better to choose an entity type with
total participation in R in the role of S.
Include the entire simple attributes (or simple
components of composite attributes) of the 1:1
relationship type R as attributes of S.
Dependents
Bdate
DeName
Sex
Relationship
PROJECT
Name
PNo
Location
Dependents-Of
Works_On
Hours
N
M
N
1
N
Supervision
CONTROLS
Manages
StartDate
COMPANY DATABSE
1 N
1
1
Works_For
EMPLOYEE
SSN
Bdate
Name
Sex
Address
Salary
N
DEPARTMENT
DNo
DName
DLocation
1
1
MANAGES
Finance
Personnel
Name
02
01
MGRSSN
1992/06/06
1990/05/05
StartDate
D2
D3
DNo
Manages
StartDate
1 1
DEPARTMENT
DNo
Name
Location
EMPLOYEE
SSN
Bdate
Name
Sex
Address
Salary
Name DNo
Primary key
STEP 4:
For each regular (non-weak) binary 1:N
relationship type R, identify the relation S that
represents the participating entity type at the N-side of
the relationship type.
Include as foreign key in S the primary key of the
relation T that represents the other entity type
participating in R*.
Include any simple attributes (or simple components
of composite attributes) of the 1:N relationship type as
attributes of S.
*** The reason for this is that each entity instance on the N-side is
related to at most one entity instance on the 1-side of the
relationship type.
4
Dependents
Bdate
DeName
Sex
Relationship
PROJECT
Name
PNo
Location
Dependents-Of
Works_On
Hours
N
M
N
1
N
Supervision
CONTROLS
Manages
StartDate
COMPANY DATABSE
1 N
1
1
Works_For
EMPLOYEE
SSN
Bdate
Name
Sex
Address
Salary
N
DEPARTMENT
DNo
DName
DLocation
1
1
EMPLOYEE
DEPARTMENT
DNo
DName
Location
Works_For
EMPLOYEE
SSN
Bdate
Name
Sex
Address
Salary
N
1
Manila
Makati
Address
D2 1950/02/02 12000 F Maria B. Santos 02
D1 1960/01/01 10000 M Juan A. Cruz 01
DNo Bdate Salary Sex LName M
I
FName SSN
Manila 1950/02/02 12000 F Maria B. Santos 02
Makati 1960/01/01 10000 M Juan A. Cruz 01
Address Bdate Salary Sex LName MI FName SSN
Primary key
STEP 5:
For each binary M:N relationship type R,
create a new relation S to represent R.
Include as foreign key attributes in S the
primary keys of the relations that represent the
participating entity types; their combination
will form the primary key of S.
Also include any simple attributes of the M:N
relationship (or simple components of
composite attributes) as attributes of S.
Dependents
Bdate
DeName
Sex
Relationship
PROJECT
Name
PNo
Location
Dependents-Of
Works_On
Hours
N
M
N
1
N
Supervision
CONTROLS
Manages
StartDate
COMPANY DATABSE
1 N
1
1
Works_For
EMPLOYEE
SSN
Bdate
Name
Sex
Address
Salary
N
DEPARTMENT
DNo
DName
DLocation
1
1
WORKS_ON
30 P1 02
20 P1 01
Hours PNo ESSN
Works_On
Hours
M
N
EMPLOYEE
SSN
Bdate
Name
Sex
Address
Salary
PROJECT
Name
PNo Location
Primary key
STEP 6:
For each multivalued attribute A, create a
new relation R that includes an attribute
corresponding to A.
Include the primary key attribute K (as a
foreign key in R) of the relation that represents
the entity type or relationship type that has A
as an attribute.
The primary key of R is the combination of A
and K. If the multivalued attribute is
composite, include its simple components.
5
Dependents
Bdate
DeName
Sex
Relationship
PROJECT
Name
PNo
Location
Dependents-Of
Works_On
Hours
N
M
N
1
N
Supervision
CONTROLS
Manages
StartDate
COMPANY DATABSE
1 N
1
1
Works_For
EMPLOYEE
SSN
Bdate
Name
Sex
Address
Salary
N
DEPARTMENT
DNo
DName
DLocation
1
1
DEPT_LOCATION
Loc2 D1
Loc1 D2
Loc3 D2
Loc1 D1
DLocation DNo
DEPARTMENT
DNo
Name
DLocation
Primary key
EMPLOYEE(SSN,FName,MI,Lname,Sex,
Salary,Bdate, Address, SUPERSSN,DNo)
DEPARTMENT(DNumber,DName,MGRSSN,
StartDate)
DEPT_LOCATION(DNo, Location)
PROJECT(PNo, PName, Plocation,DNum)
WORKS_ON(ESSN,PNo, Hours)
DEPENDENT(ESSN, DependentName, Sex,
Bdate, Relationship)
TABLES as RELATIONS STEP 7:
For each n-ary relationship type R, n>2, create a new
relation S to represent R.
Include as foreign key attributes in S the primary keys
of the relations that represent the participating entity
types.
Also, include any simple attributes of the n-ary
relationship type (or simple components of composite
attributes) as attributes of S.
The primary key of S is usually a combination of all
the foreign keys that reference the relations
representing the participating entity types.
However if the participation is constraint (min,
max) of one of the entity types E participating
in R has max = 1, then the primary key of S
can be the single foreign key attribute that
references the relation E corresponding to E.
This is because in this case, each entity e in E
will participate in at most one relationship
instance of R and hence can uniquely identify
that relationship instance.
SUPPLY
Part2
Part1
PartNo
30
20
Quantity
P1 B
P1 A
PNo SName
SUPPLY
Quantity
SUPPLIER
SName
PROJECT
PNo
PART
PartNo
Primary key
M
M
M