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Database Models
In this lesson we explain the following things:

 data o database models,

 RDBMS (Relational DataBase Management System),
 RDBMS components,
 Entities, Attributes, and Relations
 scheme of entities and Relations

When the computer appeared at first time, the first thing human thought was to find ways to store
data preserve and retrieve it if needed. At the beginning they used file system to achieve this
task. Later they built data models for accomplishing these operations. The main object for these
database models was to represent the data of the real world in simple and agreed method.

The notion of a ”data model” is one of the most fundamental in the study of database systems. In
this brief summary of the concept, we define some basic terminology and mention the most
important data models. A data model is a notation for describing data or information. The
description generally consists of three parts:

1. Structure of the data. The data structures used to implement data in the computer are
sometimes referred to as a physical data model. In the database world, data models are at a
somewhat higher level than data structures, and are sometimes referred to as a conceptual
model to emphasize the difference in level.

2. Operations on the data. In database data models, there is usually a limited set of operations
that can be performed. We are generally allowed to perform a limited set of queries
(operations that retrieve information) and modifications (operations that change the
database). By limiting operations, it is possible for programmers to describe database
operations at a very high level, yet have the database management system implement the
operations efficiently.
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3. Constraints on the data. Database data models usually have a way to describe limitations on
what the data can be. These constraints can range from the simple (e.g., ”a day of the week is
an integer between 1 and 7” or ”a movie has at most one title”) to some very complex forms
of limitations.

Many types of database models were appeared in the last duration which as follows:

1. Hierarchical database Model is a data model in which data is arranged in the form of a
tree appeared in the early 1960s. Figure in the below represents it.

Figure shows Hierarchical database Model

2. Network database Model is a data model in which data is arranged in the form of a
network of records appeared in the early 1960s figure in the below represents it. In this
model, each record can be represented as a master record and its sub-records that sub
divided from it. Figure in the below represents it.
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Figur
e shows Network database Model

3. Relational database Model is the model that was designed by the scientist Codd in 1970. Today can
be running the software that depend on the relational database in the all devices such computer,
mobile and others. On the other hand, Relational database Model is considered simpler and also less
complicated compare with the others models. The database management system that used to manage
database of this model called Relational DataBase Management System (DBMS). In our study we
will focus on the Relational database Model. The next figure represents this model.
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Figure shows Relational database Model

Entity-relationship model

Entity-relationship model depends on three main components, Entities, Attributes, and Relations.
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The main components of Entity-relationship model

1. Entity is an entity or thing that exists in the real world and is the focus of attention of the
system and can be distinguished from other entities. Also, it is the entity or the thing that we
collect the data about it. For example, in the school system we will find number of entities
such as student, teacher, subject, class.

The supermarket system also represents another example that includes number of entities such as
customer, product and invoice.
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2. Attributes are represented the characteristics of the entity that distinguishes it from another
entity, they are the data that should be stored about this entity. These attributes may be share
between two entities or more or different. The following example explains that.
In the school system, we have number of entities such as student, teacher, subject, class, etc.

Student Entity:

Medicine Entity:
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3. Relations represent the links between different entities.

What is ER Diagrams?

Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD) displays the relationships of entity set stored in a database.
In other words, we can say that ER diagrams help you to explain the logical structure of
databases. At first look, an ER diagram looks very similar to the flowchart. However, ER
Diagram includes many specialized symbols, and its meanings make this model unique.

Figure shows Sample ER Diagram

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Facts about ER Diagram Model:

 ER model allows you to draw Database Design

 It is an easy to use graphical tool for modeling data
 Widely used in Database Design
 It is a GUI representation of the logical structure of a Database
 It helps you to identifies the entities which exist in a system and the relationships
between those entities

Why use ER Diagrams?

Here, are prime reasons for using the ER Diagram

 Helps you to define terms related to entity relationship modeling

 Provide a preview of how all your tables should connect, what fields are going to be on
each table
 Helps to describe entities, attributes, relationships
 ER diagrams are translatable into relational tables which allows you to build databases
quickly
 ER diagrams can be used by database designers as a blueprint for implementing data in
specific software applications
 The database designer gains a better understanding of the information to be contained in
the database with the help of ERP diagram
 ERD is allowed you to communicate with the logical structure of the database to users

Components of the ER Diagram

This model is based on three basic concepts:

 Entities
 Attributes
 Relationships
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Example

For example, in a University database, we might have entities for Students, Courses, and
Lecturers. Students’ entity can have attributes like Rollno, Name, and Dept ID. They might have
relationships with Courses and Lecturers.

What is entity?

A real-world thing is either living or non-living that is easily recognizable and nonrecognizable.
It is anything in the enterprise that is to be represented in our database. It may be a physical thing
or simply a fact about the enterprise or an event that happens in the real world.

An entity can be place, person, object, event or a concept, which stores data in the database. The
characteristics of entities are must have an attribute, and a unique key. Every entity is made up of
some 'attributes' which represent that entity.

Examples of entities:

 Person: Employee, Student, Patient

 Place: Store, Building
 Object: Machine, product, and Car
 Event: Sale, Registration, Renewal
 Concept: Account, Course
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Entity set:

Student

An entity set is a group of similar kind of entities. It may contain entities with attribute sharing
similar values. Entities are represented by their properties, which also called attributes. All
attributes have their separate values. For example, a student entity may have a name, age, class,
as attributes.

Relationship

Relationship is nothing but an association among two or more entities. E.g., Tom works in the
Chemistry department.

Entities take part in relationships. We can often identify relationships with verbs or verb phrases.

For example:

 You are attending this lecture

 I am giving the lecture
 Just loke entities, we can classify relationships according to relationship-types:
 A student attends a lecture
 A lecturer is giving a lecture.
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Weak Entities

A weak entity is a type of entity which doesn't have its key attribute. It can be identified uniquely
by considering the primary key of another entity. For that, weak entity sets need to have
participation.

In aboe example, "Trans No" is a discriminator within a group of transactions in an ATM.

Let's learn more about a weak entity by comparing it with a Strong Entity.

Strong Entity Set Weak Entity Set

Strong entity set always has a primary key. It does not have enough attributes to build a
primary key.

It is represented by a rectangle symbol. It is represented by a double rectangle

symbol.

It contains a Primary key represented by the It contains a Partial Key which is represented
underline symbol. by a dashed underline symbol.

The member of a strong entity set is called as The member of a weak entity set called as a
dominant entity set. subordinate entity set.

Primary Key is one of its attributes which In a weak entity set, it is a combination of
helps to identify its member. primary key and partial key of the strong
entity set.

In the ER diagram the relationship between The relationship between one strong and a
two strong entity set shown by using a weak entity set shown by using the double
diamond symbol. diamond symbol.
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The connecting line of the strong entity set The line connecting the weak entity set for
with the relationship is single. identifying relationship is double.

Attributes

It is a single-valued property of either an entity-type or a relationship-type.

For example, a lecture might have attributes: time, date, duration, place, etc.

An attribute is represented by an Ellipse.

Types of Attributes Description

Simple attribute Simple attributes can't be divided any further.

For example, a student's contact number. It is
also called an atomic value.

Composite attribute It is possible to break down composite

attribute. For example, a student's full name
may be further divided into first name, second
name, and last name.

Derived attribute This type of attribute does not include in the

physical database. However, their values are
derived from other attributes present in the
database. For example, age should not be
stored directly. Instead, it should be derived
from the DOB of that employee.
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Multivalued attribute Multivalued attributes can have more than

one values. For example, a student can have
more than one mobile number, email address,
etc.

Cardinality

Defines the numerical attributes of the relationship between two entities or entity sets.

Different types of cardinal relationships are:

 One-to-One Relationships
 One-to-Many Relationships
 May to One Relationships
 Many-to-Many Relationships

1. One-to-one:

One entity from entity set X can be associated with at most one entity of entity set Y and vice
versa.

Example: One student can register for numerous courses. However, all those courses have a
single line back to that one student.
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One-to-many:

One entity from entity set X can be associated with multiple entities of entity set Y, but an entity
from entity set Y can be associated with at least one entity.

For example, one class is consisting of multiple students.

3. Many to One

More than one entity from entity set X can be associated with at most one entity of entity set Y.
However, an entity from entity set Y may or may not be associated with more than one entity
from entity set X.

For example, many students belong to the same class.

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4. Many to Many:

One entity from X can be associated with more than one entity from Y and vice versa.

For example, Students as a group are associated with multiple faculty members, and faculty
members can be associated with multiple students.

ER- Diagram Notations

ER- Diagram is a visual representation of data that describe how data is related to each other.

 Rectangles: This symbol represent entity types

 Ellipses : Symbol represent attributes
 Diamonds: This symbol represents relationship types
 Lines: It links attributes to entity types and entity types with other relationship types
 Primary key: attributes are underlined
 Double Ellipses: Represent multi-valued attributes
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Steps to Create an ERD

Following are the steps to create an ERD.

Let's study them with an example:

In a university, a Student enrolls in Courses. A student must be assigned to at least one or more
Courses. Each course is taught by a single Professor. To maintain instruction quality, a Professor
can deliver only one course

Step 1) Entity Identification

We have three entities

 Student
 Course
 Professor

Step 2) Relationship Identification

We have the following two relationships

 The student is assigned a course

 Professor delivers a course
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Step 3) Cardinality Identification

For them problem statement we know that,

 A student can be assigned multiple courses

 A Professor can deliver only one course

Step 4) Identify Attributes

You need to study the files, forms, reports, data currently maintained by the organization to
identify attributes. You can also conduct interviews with various stakeholders to identify entities.
Initially, it's important to identify the attributes without mapping them to a particular entity.

Once, you have a list of Attributes, you need to map them to the identified entities. Ensure an
attribute is to be paired with exactly one entity. If you think an attribute should belong to more
than one entity, use a modifier to make it unique.

Once the mapping is done, identify the primary Keys. If a unique key is not readily available,
create one.

Entity Primary Key Attribute

Student Student_ID StudentName

Professor Employee_ID ProfessorName

Course Course_ID CourseName

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For Course Entity, attributes could be Duration, Credits, Assignments, etc. For the sake of ease
we have considered just one attribute.

Step 5) Create the ERD

A more modern representation of ERD Diagram

Best Practices for Developing Effective ER Diagrams

 Eliminate any redundant entities or relationships

 You need to make sure that all your entities and relationships are properly labeled
 There may be various valid approaches to an ER diagram. You need to make sure that the
ER diagram supports all the data you need to store
 You should assure that each entity only appears a single time in the ER diagram
 Name every relationship, entity, and attribute are represented on your diagram
 Never connect relationships to each other
 You should use colors to highlight important portions of the ER diagram
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Conceptual, Logical and Physical data models

An ER model is typically drawn at up to three levels of abstraction:
 Conceptual ERD / Conceptual data model
 Logical ERD / Logical data model
 Physical ERD / Physical data model
While all the three levels of an ER model contain entities with attributes and relationships, they
differ in the purposes they are created for and the audiences they are meant to target.
A general understanding to the three data models is that business analyst uses a conceptual and
logical model to model the business objects exist in the system, while database designer or
database engineer elaborates the conceptual and logical ER model to produce the physical
model that presents the physical database structure ready for database creation. The table
below shows the difference between the three data models.

Conceptual model vs Logical model vs Data model:

ERD features Conceptual Logical Physical

Entity (Name) Yes Yes Yes

Relationship Yes Yes Yes

Columns Yes Yes

Column's Types Optional Yes

Primary Key Yes

Foreign Key

Conceptual data model

Conceptual ERD models the business objects that should exist in a system and the
relationships between them. A conceptual model is developed to present an overall picture of
the system by recognizing the business objects involved. It defines what entities exist, NOT
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which tables. For example, 'many to many' tables may exist in a logical or physical data model
but they are just shown as a relationship with no cardinality under the conceptual data model.

Conceptual data model example

NOTE: Conceptual ERD supports the use of generalization in modeling the 'a kind of'
relationship between two entities, for instance, Triangle, is a kind of Shape. The usage is like
generalization in UML. Notice that only conceptual ERD supports generalization.

Logical data model

Logical ERD is a detailed version of a Conceptual ERD. A logical ER model is developed to
enrich a conceptual model by defining explicitly the columns in each entity and introducing
operational and transactional entities. Although a logical data model is still independent of the
actual database system in which the database will be created, you can still take that into
consideration if it affects the design.

Logical data model example

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Physical data model

Physical ERD represents the actual design blueprint of a relational database. A physical
data model elaborates on the logical data model by assigning each column with type, length,
nullable, etc. Since a physical ERD represents how data should be structured and related in a
specific DBMS it is important to consider the convention and restriction of the actual database
system in which the database will be created. Make sure the column types are supported by the
DBMS and reserved words are not used in naming entities and columns.

Physical data model example

Summary

 The ER model is a high-level data model diagram

 ER diagrams are a visual tool which is helpful to represent the ER model
 Entity relationship diagram displays the relationships of entity set stored in a database
 ER diagrams help you to define terms related to entity relationship modeling
 ER model is based on three basic concepts: Entities, Attributes & Relationships
 An entity can be place, person, object, event or a concept, which stores data in the
database
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 Relationship is nothing but an association among two or more entities

 A weak entity is a type of entity which doesn't have its key attribute
 It is a single-valued property of either an entity-type or a relationship-type
 It helps you to defines the numerical attributes of the relationship between two entities or
entity sets
 ER- Diagram is a visual representation of data that describe how data is related to each
other
 While Drawing ER diagram you need to make sure all your entities and relationships are
properly labeled.