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12 views

Database

Uploaded by

fatimaajmal004
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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High-Level Conceptual Data Models for Database

Design
High-level conceptual data models provide a foundation for designing databases in a
way that reflects real-world entities and their interactions. These models are
independent of specific database management systems, focusing on understanding the
data itself before translating it into a specific technology. Here's a breakdown of key
concepts:

1. Entity Types and Entity Sets:

 Entity Type: A category of things in the real world that you want to represent in
the database. Examples: Customer, Product, Order.
 Entity Set: A collection of all entities that belong to a specific entity type. Think of
it as all the Customers or all the Products in your system.

2. Attributes:

 Define the properties or characteristics of an entity type. Examples


for Customer entity type: customerName, customerAddress, emailAddress.

3. Keys:

 A special attribute (or combination of attributes) that uniquely identifies an entity


within an entity set. There can be different types of keys:
o Primary Key: The most important identifier, uniquely recognizing each
entity.
o Candidate Key: Any attribute (or set of attributes) that can uniquely
identify an entity. A database table can only have one primary key, but it
can have multiple candidate keys.
o Alternate Key: A candidate key that is not chosen as the primary key, but
can still uniquely identify entities.

4. Relationship Types and Relationship Sets:

 Relationship Type: Defines a connection or association between two entity


types. Examples: Customer places an Order for Product.
 Relationship Set: A collection of all relationships of a particular relationship type
in the database. In this case, it would represent all the specific Orders placed
by Customers.

5. Roles:
 Within a relationship type, each participating entity type plays a specific role. For
example, in the Customer places an Order relationship, Customer plays the role
of "placing" the order, and Product plays the role of being "ordered".

These concepts come together to visually represent the data structure using an Entity-
Relationship Model (ER Model) diagram. The ER Model helps database designers
understand the relationships between data and build a solid foundation for a well-
organized and efficient database.

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