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N-ary Relations of Association in Class Diagrams: Design Patterns

Article  in  International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications · February 2016

DOI: 10.14569/IJACSA.2016.070237

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 (IJACSA) International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications,
Vol. 7, No. 2, 2016

N-ary Relations of Association in Class Diagrams:

Design Patterns
Sergievskiy Maxim
National Research Nuclear University MEPhI
Moscow Technological Institute
Moscow, Russia

Abstract—Most of the technology of object-oriented II. REPLACING TERNARY ASSOCIATION ON BINARY AND
development relies on the use of UML diagrams, in particular, CLASS-ASSOCIATION
class diagrams. CASE tools, used for automation of object-
oriented development, often do not support n-ary associations in Let assume that in the class diagram there is a ternary
the class diagrams, and their implementation in the form of association, i.e. the association, which involves three objects.
program code in contrast to binary rather time-consuming. The For example, take certain objects belonging to three different
article will show how in some cases it is possible to move from the classes: STUDENT, SUBJECT and LECTURER (see Fig. 1).
n-ary association between classes to binary and how can reduce We define multiplicities for the classes from this association:
the number of objects. The rules to transform models, that STUDENT (1..*) SUBJECT (1..*), LECTURER (1).
contain n-ary association, will be presented in the form of design
patterns. Proposed three new design patterns can be used in the
process of developing software systems. These patterns describe
transformations of n-ary (often ternary) associations occur
between classes in binary and the introduction of additional
classes and binary association with the aim of optimizing the
model.

Keywords—UML; class diagram; multiplicity; ternary

association; n-ary association; class-association; design pattern;
object
Fig. 1. The ternary association between the classes STUDENT, SUBJECT
I. INTRODUCTION and LECTURER
As it is known, UML is the standard tool for modeling
software systems [1], [2], [3], [4]. Most of the object-oriented The multiplicity of the association in relation to the class
technology developments use general capabilities of this LECTURER is (1) because any fixed pair of objects the
language. The design stage primarily uses class diagrams from STUDENT and the SUBJECT corresponds to only one object
the UML. They describe the model of a software system class LECTURER. Each LECTURER may teach one subject
reflecting the main parameters of the subject area. In class with multiple students, so the multiplicity of the association in
diagrams, the base relationship is an association relationship. relation to the class of the STUDENT is equal to (1..*); the
This is complex structural relation, which describes links same lecturer can read several courses to any single student,
between the objects of different classes of software system. At so the multiplicity of the association in relation to the class
the later stage software system model in the form of a class SUBJECT equals (1..*).
diagrams will be transformed into a logical database model Pattern_1. Assume that in the n-ary association there is
and object-oriented application code. It is important that a a class with multiplicity (1). Then n-ary association can be
substantial part of the code can be generated automatically replaced with a combination of (n-1)-ary association and
with the help of CASE tools. The majority of CASE tools do class-association.
not support n-ary (in particular, ternary) association
relationships in the class diagrams [2], [5]. Also, n-ary Proving the above is quite simple: show how it would
association, unlike binary, is a time consuming (this does not work for a ternary association. Let’s combine two classes with
apply to databases). The article will demonstrate how in some multiplicities, different from (1), with normal binary
cases it is possible to move from the n-ary association between association. Then any two connected objects of these classes
classes (often ternary) to binary, and how you can reduce the will correspond to exactly one object of the third class, which
number of potential objects of class-associations. Guidelines we can without loss of generality refer to the class-association.
for the conversion of models containing n-ary association will Thus, the class-association will replace the third class of
be shown in the form of design patterns [6]. ternary association. Moreover, in this class we can include
attributes originally related to the ternary association.

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 (IJACSA) International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications,
Vol. 7, No. 2, 2016

association: GROUP (1..*), SUBJECT (1..*), LECTURER

(1).
In this case, using Pattern_1, we can get the combination
of simple binary association and class-association, then a class
diagram will have a different appearance (see Fig. 4). The
advantage of this chart is that a number of objects – instances
of class-association LECTURER - will be reduced.

Fig. 2. Replacing ternary association on binary and class-association

Applying Pattern_1 will give us a new class diagram not

containing ternary association (see Fig. 2). Such cases are
fairly common. Here is another example of ternary
association, which multiplicity to one of the classes (1):
PLAYER (11..*), SEASON (*), CLUB (1).
The multiplicity associated with the class CLUB is equal Fig. 4. The introduction of additional (to the class STUDENT) class
to (1), because any player may change club only in the GROUP
offseason.
Based on the above, you have the following options to
The third example describes the case when all objects of describe appropriate design pattern:
the ternary associations belong to the same class - PEOPLE:
this refers to the relation Father – Mother – Pattern_2. Assume that for two or more classes there is
a class-association with one or more attributes. If it is
possible to split the objects of one of the classes into a
subsets for which the attribute values of the class-
association will be the same, then another class should be
created with the association with multiplicities (1) and (*)
to the first class.
But still redundancy in the form of repeated instances of a
class-association LECTURER remains (in case the lecturer
will teach the same subject to multiple streams). Let’s
introduce another class-association – TIMETABLE. This is a
class, not an attribute, because it can include already specified
attributes: the lecture starting time, finishing time, classroom
number. This new class will be connected to a normal class-
Fig. 3. Ternary association Engender (Father, Mother, Child) association LECTURER. New association will have the
following multiplicities: (1) – for class LECTURER and (*) –
Child (see Fig. 3). Here the multiplicities are as follows:
for the class TIMETABLE (see Fig. 5). This solution will help
PERSON (Father) - (1), PERSON (Mother) - (1), PERSON
to reduce the number of instances of a class-association
(Child) - (*).
LECTURER. Here we use an operation, similar to the
III. USING OF ADDITIONAL CLASSES operation of standard normalization from the database theory
[7].
Let’s come back to the first example. For a ternary
association, as for any other, there may be relevant attributes.
In this case it can be starting and finishing time of the class
session and the classroom number. Let’s try to strip out a
subclass from a defined class of objects, which has
commonalities in relation to these attributes. For example, all
students are divided into different groups, for which similar
classes are taking place at the same time. In this case there is a
class - GROUP.
The ternary association between the classes STUDENT –
SUBJECT – LECTURER is transformed into a ternary
association GROUP – SUBJECT – LECTURER and the
binary association STUDENT – GROUP. We define
multiplicities for the classes involved in the new ternary
Fig. 5. Introduction of the class-association TIMETABLE

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 (IJACSA) International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications,
Vol. 7, No. 2, 2016

IV. REPLACEMENT OF THE N-ARY ASSOCIATION WITH

BINARY ONES
Let’s describe another commonly occurring type of n-ary
association that can exist between classes, or rather between
objects of classes. Assume that on one side there is a single
object of one class against involved in the association and on
the other side there is a random number of objects of the
second class. That means that the relation is defined as a set of
tuples of variable length.
Fig. 7. Class diagram for the model genetic diseases
Let’s give examples of such relations from the real subject
domains [8], [9]. There are two classes: the DISEASE and
there is a class diagram that includes classes in addition to
GENOTYPIC_TRAIT. Relations between objects of these
DISEASE and GENOTYPIC_TRAIT: the class
classes can be described as follows: object class DISEASE
may be associated with any number of objects GROUP_GENES (see Fig. 7) and, if need, class-
GENOTYPIC_TRAIT, and tuples of different lengths from 1 association between DISEASE and GROUP_GENES classes
to N to store additional attributes.
(D1, GT1, ... , GTN ), Pattern_3. Assume that the n-ary association involves
one object of the first class and random number of objects
characterized by an additional attribute - the probability of
of the second class. In this case a third class should be
disease given the presence of these genotypic traits. It turns
entered to group the objects of the second class and
out that the tuples of the relations are of the form of:
associate it semantically different binary relations of the
(D1, GT1), (D1, GT1, GT2), (D2, GT2), (D2, GT3), (D2, association with the first and second classes.
GT1, GT2, GT3)
V. N-ARY ASSOCIATIONS (N>3)
In case we are to show relationship between objects
graphically, the result is that one object class the DISEASE Since substantial part of this article is devoted to the n-ary
may be associated with one object association relationships, let’s give examples of n-ary
associations with n>3. Obviously, in real domain areas such
GENOTYPIC_TRAIT more than once. That means the associations are often met.
object diagram for the described relationship may be the
following (see Fig. 6). Take the domain area associated with the deliveries to the
warehouses of different goods produced by different
Let us go through another example. When a number of companies. We can distinguish four classes:
participants in a certain project are defined, the following
problem often arises. The project may involve staff in
different combinations. For example, performing Project_1
can attract Smit and Jones, participation could be limited to
Smit only, or you can even add Clark. Resources spent in each
of the above cases (time, finances, etc.) will vary, and can be
added as additional attributes. Then between classes
PROJECT and EMPLOYEE also encounter the recently
described type associative relationship.

Fig. 8. Tetrary association

MANUFACTURER, WAREHOUSE, GOOD, CARRIER.

Objects of these classes will be linked by relationship of
association, which may have additional attributes such as
delivery time, quantity, invoice number, etc. All the
multiplicities in this case will be equal to (*) (see Fig. 8).
VI. CONCLUSION
The article describes three new design patterns which
could be applied in developing software systems. These
templates show transformations of n-ary (often ternary)
Fig. 6. Object diagram associations, which occur between classes, into binary, as well
as the introduction of additional classes and binary relations
It is obvious that means to describe and specify this with the aim of optimizing the model. This task is very
relationship in UML is not. But we can solve this problem by relevant given that in real domains n-ary associations are very
entering additional class GROUP_GENES. In this case common, and system analysts often confront with these facts

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 (IJACSA) International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications,
Vol. 7, No. 2, 2016

[10]. Thus, applying new templates already at the design stage [4] Methodical Materials IBM, https://www14.software.ibm.com
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2004
software system operating process.
[7] A. Konkin, M. Sergievskiy,”Integrating Bayesian Networks and
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