Database Modeling - ER model

o ER model stands for an Entity-Relationship model. It is a high-level data model. This model is
used to define the data elements and relationship for a specified system.
o It develops a conceptual design for the database. It also develops a very simple and easy to
design view of data.
o In ER modeling, the database structure is portrayed as a diagram called an entity-relationship
diagram.

For example, Suppose we design a school database. In this database, the student will be an entity
with attributes like address, name, id, age, etc. The address can be another entity with attributes like
city, street name, pin code, etc and there will be a relationship between them.

Component of ER Diagram

1
1. Entity:
An entity may be any object, class, person or place. In the ER diagram, an entity can be represented as
rectangles.

Consider an organization as an example- manager, product, employee, department etc. can be taken
as an entity.

a. Weak Entity

An entity that depends on another entity called a weak entity. The weak entity doesn't contain any key
attribute of its own. The weak entity is represented by a double rectangle.

2. Attribute

The attribute is used to describe the property of an entity. Eclipse is used to represent an attribute.

For example, id, age, contact number, name, etc. can be attributes of a student.

a. Key Attribute

The key attribute is used to represent the main characteristics of an entity. It represents a primary
key. The key attribute is represented by an ellipse with the text underlined.

2
b. Composite Attribute

An attribute that composed of many other attributes is known as a composite attribute. The composite
attribute is represented by an ellipse, and those ellipses are connected with an ellipse.

c. Multivalued Attribute

An attribute can have more than one value. These attributes are known as a multivalued attribute. The
double oval is used to represent multivalued attribute.

For example, a student can have more than one phone number.

d. Derived Attribute

An attribute that can be derived from other attribute is known as a derived attribute. It can be
represented by a dashed ellipse.

3
For example, A person's age changes over time and can be derived from another attribute like Date
of birth.

3. Relationship

A relationship is used to describe the relation between entities. Diamond or rhombus is used to
represent the relationship.

The association among entities is called a relationship. For example, an employee works_at a
department, a student enrolls in a course. Here, Works_at and Enrolls are called relationships.

Relationship Set
A set of relationships of similar type is called a relationship set. Like entities, a relationship too can
have attributes. These attributes are called descriptive attributes.
Types of relationship are as follows:

a. One-to-One Relationship

When only one instance of an entity is associated with the relationship, then it is known as one to one
relationship.

For example, A female can marry to one male, and a male can marry to one female.

4
b. One-to-many relationship

When only one instance of the entity on the left, and more than one instance of an entity on the right
associates with the relationship then this is known as a one-to-many relationship.

For example, Scientist can invent many inventions, but the invention is done by the only specific
scientist.

c. Many-to-one relationship

When more than one instance of the entity on the left, and only one instance of an entity on the right
associates with the relationship then it is known as a many-to-one relationship.

For example, Student enrolls for only one course, but a course can have many students.

d. Many-to-many relationship

When more than one instance of the entity on the left, and more than one instance of an entity on the
right associates with the relationship then it is known as a many-to-many relationship.

For example, Employee can assign by many projects and project can have many employees.

Keys
o Keys play an important role in the relational database.
o It is used to uniquely identify any record or row of data from the table. It is also used to
establish and identify relationships between tables.

For example: In Student table, ID is used as a key because it is unique for each student. In PERSON
table, passport_number, license_number, SSN are keys since they are unique for each person.

5
Types of key:

1. Primary key
o It is the first key which is used to identify one and only one instance of an entity uniquely. An
entity can contain multiple keys as we saw in PERSON table. The key which is most suitable
from those lists become a primary key.
o In the EMPLOYEE table, ID can be primary key since it is unique for each employee. In the
EMPLOYEE table, we can even select License_Number and Passport_Number as primary key
since they are also unique.
o For each entity, selection of the primary key is based on requirement and developers.

6
2. Candidate key
o A candidate key is an attribute or set of an attribute which can uniquely identify a tuple.
o The remaining attributes except for primary key are considered as a candidate key. The
candidate keys are as strong as the primary key.
o A minimal super key is called a candidate key.

For example: In the EMPLOYEE table, id is best suited for the primary key. Rest of the attributes like
SSN, Passport_Number, and License_Number, etc. are considered as a candidate key.

3. Super Key
Super key is a set of an attribute which can uniquely identify a tuple. Super key is a superset of a
candidate key.

For example: In the above EMPLOYEE table, for(EMPLOEE_ID, EMPLOYEE_NAME) the name of two
employees can be the same, but their EMPLYEE_ID can't be the same. Hence, this combination can
also be a key.

The super key would be EMPLOYEE-ID, (EMPLOYEE_ID, EMPLOYEE-NAME), etc.

4. Foreign key
o Foreign keys are the column of the table which is used to point to the primary key of another
table.
o In a company, every employee works in a specific department, and employee and department
are two different entities. So we can't store the information of the department in the employee
table. That's why we link these two tables through the primary key of one table.
o We add the primary key of the DEPARTMENT table, Department_Id as a new attribute in the
EMPLOYEE table.
o Now in the EMPLOYEE table, Department_Id is the foreign key, and both the tables are related.

7
Mapping Constraints
o A mapping constraint is a data constraint that expresses the number of entities to which
another entity can be related via a relationship set.
o It is most useful in describing the relationship sets that involve more than two entity sets.
o For binary relationship set R on an entity set A and B, there are four possible mapping
cardinalities. These are as follows:
1. One to one (1:1)
2. One to many (1:M)
3. Many to one (M:1)
4. Many to many (M:M)

One-to-one
In one-to-one mapping, an entity in E1 is associated with at most one entity in E2, and an entity in E2
is associated with at most one entity in E1.

8
One-to-many
In one-to-many mapping, an entity in E1 is associated with any number of entities in E2, and an entity
in E2 is associated with at most one entity in E1.

Many-to-one
In one-to-many mapping, an entity in E1 is associated with at most one entity in E2, and an entity in E2
is associated with any number of entities in E1.

Many-to-many
In many-to-many mapping, an entity in E1 is associated with any number of entities in E2, and an
entity in E2 is associated with any number of entities in E1.

9
Mapping of ER diagram to Relational Table
The database can be represented using the notations, and these notations can be reduced to a
collection of tables.

In the database, every entity set or relationship set can be represented in tabular form.

The ER diagram is given below:

There are some points for converting the ER diagram to the table:

o Entity type becomes a table.

In the given ER diagram, LECTURE, STUDENT, SUBJECT and COURSE forms individual tables.

o All single-valued attribute becomes a column for the table.

In the STUDENT entity, STUDENT_NAME and STUDENT_ID form the column of STUDENT table. Similarly,
COURSE_NAME and COURSE_ID form the column of COURSE table and so on.

o A key attribute of the entity type represented by the primary key.

In the given ER diagram, COURSE_ID, STUDENT_ID, SUBJECT_ID, and LECTURE_ID are the key attribute
of the entity.

10
 o The multivalued attribute is represented by a separate table.

In the student table, a hobby is a multivalued attribute. So it is not possible to represent multiple
values in a single column of STUDENT table. Hence we create a table STUD_HOBBY with column name
STUDENT_ID and HOBBY. Using both the column, we create a composite key.

o Composite attribute represented by components.

In the given ER diagram, student address is a composite attribute. It contains CITY, PIN, DOOR#,
STREET, and STATE. In the STUDENT table, these attributes can merge as an individual column.

o Derived attributes are not considered in the table.

In the STUDENT table, Age is the derived attribute. It can be calculated at any point of time by
calculating the difference between current date and Date of Birth.

Using these rules, you can convert the ER diagram to tables and columns and assign the mapping
between the tables. Table structure for the given ER diagram is as below:

11