10/23/2024

Lecture 4
Data Modeling Using the
Entity-Relationship (ER) Model

© 2023 by Prof. Manal Abdel-Kader Abdel-Fattah 4.1

Lecture objectives

1. Database Development Process.

2. Using High-Level Conceptual Data
Models for Database Design.
3. ER Model Concepts (Entities,
Attributes, and Keys).
4. A Sample Database Application.

© 2023 by Prof. Manal Abdel-Kader Abdel-Fattah 4.2

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1. Database
Development
Process

DFD
Sequence
……..

Nontechnical
User

Application Programs
© 2023 by Prof. Manal Abdel-Kader Abdel-Fattah 4.3

2. Using High-Level Conceptual Data

Models for Database Design

❖ Requirements collection and analysis

❖ Database designers interview prospective
database users to understand and document
data requirements
❖ Result: data requirements
❖ Functional requirements of the application

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Using High-Level Conceptual Data

Models (cont’d.)

❖ Conceptual schema
❖ Conceptual design.
❖ Description of data requirements.
❖ Includes detailed descriptions of the entity
types, relationships, and constraints.
❖ Transformed from high-level data model into
implementation data model.

© 2023 by Prof. Manal Abdel-Kader Abdel-Fattah 4.5

Using High-Level Conceptual Data

Models (cont’d.)

❖ Logical design or data model mapping

❖ Result is a database schema in
implementation data model of DBMS.
❖ Physical design phase
❖ Internal storage structures, file organizations,
indexes, access paths, and physical design
parameters for the database files specified.

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3. ER Model Concepts

❖ ER model describes data as:

❖ Entities
❖ Attributes
❖ Relationships

© 2023 by Prof. Manal Abdel-Kader Abdel-Fattah 4.7

Entities
❖ Entity: is a thing in the real world with an
independent existence
❖ An entity may be a person, a place, an object, an
event, or a concept in the user environment
about which the organization wishes to
maintain data

❖ Examples:
❖ An object with a physical existence (person, car,
employee).
❖ An object with a conceptual existence (a job, or
a university course).

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An Entity…
❖ SHOULD BE:
❖ An object that will have many instances in the
database.
❖ An object that will be composed of multiple
attributes.
❖ An object that we are trying to model

❖ SHOULD NOT BE:

❖ A user of the database system
❖ An output of the database system (e.g. a report)

© 2023 by Prof. Manal Abdel-Kader Abdel-Fattah 4.9

Entities
❖ Entity type – a collection of entities that share
common properties or characteristics.
❖ Entity instance – A single occurrence of an
entity type.

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Strong vs. Weak Entities

❖ Strong entity
➢ exists independently of other types of entities
➢ has its own unique identifier, identifier underlined
with single line.
❖ Weak entity
➢ dependent on a strong entity (identifying
owner)…cannot exist on its own.
➢ does not have a unique identifier (only a partial
identifier).
➢ entity box and partial identifier have double lines.

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Example of a weak identity and its

identifying relationship

Name

DEPENDENT Age
DependentOf

EID
Name EMPLOYEE
Phone

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Attributes
❖ Attribute: property or characteristic of an entity or
relationship type (used to describe an entity).
❖ Name should be a singular noun
❖ Name should be unique
❖ Examples:
❖ An “Employee” entity may be described by the
employee’s name, age, address, salary, and job
❖ A “Student” entity may be described by the
student’s name, student number, current address,
permanent address, birthDate, sex, class, and
phone

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Attributes

❖ Classifications of attributes:
1. Required versus Optional Attributes
2. Simple versus Composite Attribute
3. Single-Valued versus Multivalued Attribute
4. Stored versus Derived Attributes
5. Complex Attributes.
6. Identifier (key) Attributes

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1) Required vs. Optional Attributes

❖ Required: must have a value for every entity

(or relationship) instance with which it is
associated, e.g. Student ID

❖ Optional: may not have a value for every

entity (or relationship) instance with which it is
associated, e.g. Student Major

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2) Simple vs. Composite Attributes

❖ Attributes that are not divisible are called simple
or atomic attributes, e.g. Sex

❖ Composite attribute: An attribute that has

meaningful component parts (attributes) or tree

The address is
broken into
component parts

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3) Single-Valued versus Multi-valued

Attribute
❖ Single: must have a single value, e.g.
Employee’s Marital status

❖ Multi-valued: may take on more than one

value for a given entity (or relationship)
instance, e.g. an employee can have more than
one skill

❖ Question: which type of attributes represent

“College degrees” single or multi-valued
attribute?

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4) Stored versus Derived Attributes

❖ Stored: a value must be physically stored in

the database, .e.g. birthdate

❖ Derived: values can be calculated from related

attribute values (not physically stored in the
database), e.g. years employed for employees
could be calculated from date employed and
current date

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5) Complex Attribute

❖ Complex: composite and multivalued attributes.

Composite attribute between parentheses () and
separating the components with commas, and by
displaying multi-valued attributes between braces { }

❖ Example
{Address_phone(
{Phone(Area_code,Phone_number)},
Address(Street_address(Number,Street,
Apartment_number),City,State,Zip) )}

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6) Identifier (key) Attributes

❖ Key or uniqueness constraint

❖ Attributes whose values are distinct for each
individual entity in entity set.
❖ Key attribute: Uniqueness property must
hold for every entity set of the entity type, e.g.
Student ID.
❖ Key attribute : Cannot be Null.
❖ Key attribute may be more than one
attribute, e.g. “Project ID” and “Employee ID”.
❖ If the entity does not have key attributes of their
own, it will called “Weak entity”

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Notation Summary

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4.Initial Conceptual Design of the

COMPANY Database
❖ An entity type EMPLOYEE with attributes Name,
Ssn, Sex, Address, Salary, Birth_date,
Department, Age, and Supervisor. Both Name
and Address may be composite attributes. Each
employee works on more than one project with
different hours.

❖ An entity type DEPENDENT with attributes

Employee, Dependent_name, Sex, Birth_date,
and Relationship (to the employee).

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Initial Conceptual Design of the

COMPANY Database

Age

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Initial Conceptual Design of the

COMPANY Database
❖ An entity type DEPARTMENT with attributes Name,
Number, Locations, Manager, and Manager_start_date.
Department may be found in more than one Location.
Name and Number are specified to be unique.

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Initial Conceptual Design of the

COMPANY Database
❖ An entity type DEPARTMENT with attributes Name,
Number, Locations, Manager, and Manager_start_date.
Department may be found in more than one Location.
Name and Number are specified to be unique.

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Thank you

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