Introduction of ER Model

ER Model
• The Entity Relational Model is a model for identifying entities
to be represented in the database and representation of how
those entities are related. The ER data model specifies
enterprise schema that represents the overall logical structure
of a database graphically.
• The Entity Relationship Diagram explains the relationship
among the entities present in the database. ER models are
used to model real-world objects like a person, a car, or a
company and the relation between these real-world objects. In
short, the ER Diagram is the structural format of the database.
Use of ER Model
• ER diagrams are used to represent the E-R model in a
database, which makes them easy to be converted into
relations (tables).
• ER diagrams provide the purpose of real-world modeling of
objects which makes them intently useful.
• ER diagrams require no technical knowledge and no hardware
support.
• These diagrams are very easy to understand and easy to create
even for a naive user.
• It gives a standard solution for visualizing the data logically.
Symbols used in ER Model
Components of ER Diagram
• ER Model consists of Entities, Attributes, and Relationships
among Entities in a Database System.
Entity
• An Entity may be an object with a physical existence – a
particular person, car, house, or employee – or it may be an
object with a conceptual existence – a company, a job, or a
university course.
Entity Set:
• An Entity is an object of Entity Type and a set of all entities is
called an entity set.
• For Example, E1 is an entity having Entity Type Student and
the set of all students is called Entity Set.
• In ER diagram, Entity Type is represented as:
Strong Entity
• A Strong Entity is a type of entity that has a key Attribute.
• Strong Entity does not depend on other Entity in the Schema.
• It has a primary key, that helps in identifying it uniquely, and it
is represented by a rectangle.
• These are called Strong Entity Types.
Weak Entity
• An Entity type has a key attribute that uniquely identifies each
entity in the entity set.
• But some entity type exists for which key attributes can’t be
defined.
• These are called Weak Entity types.
Example
A company may store the information of dependents (Parents,
Children, Spouse) of an Employee. But the dependents don’t
have existed without the employee. So Dependent will be
a Weak Entity Type and Employee will be Identifying Entity
type for Dependent, which means it is Strong Entity Type.
A weak entity type is represented by a Double Rectangle. The
participation of weak entity types is always total. The
relationship between the weak entity type and its identifying
strong entity type is called identifying relationship and it is
represented by a double diamond.
Attributes
• Attributes are the properties that define the entity type.
• For example, Roll_No, Name, DOB, Age, Address, and
Mobile_No are the attributes that define entity type Student.
• In ER diagram, the attribute is represented by an oval.
Key Attribute
• The attribute which uniquely identifies each entity in the
entity set is called the key attribute. For example, Roll_No will
be unique for each student. In ER diagram, the key attribute is
represented by an oval with underlying lines.
Composite Attribute
• An attribute composed of many other attributes is called a
composite attribute. For example, the Address attribute of the
student Entity type consists of Street, City, State, and Country.
In ER diagram, the composite attribute is represented by an
oval comprising of ovals.
Multivalued Attribute
• An attribute consisting of more than one value for a given
entity. For example, Phone_No (can be more than one for a
given student). In ER diagram, a multivalued attribute is
represented by a double oval.
Derived Attribute
• An attribute that can be derived from other attributes of the
entity type is known as a derived attribute. e.g.; Age (can be
derived from DOB). In ER diagram, the derived attribute is
represented by a dashed oval.
Relationship Type and Relationship Set
• A Relationship Type represents the association between entity
types.
• For example, ‘Enrolled in’ is a relationship type that exists
between entity type Student and Course.
• In ER diagram, the relationship type is represented by a
diamond and connecting the entities with lines.
Relationship Type and Relationship Set
• A set of relationships of the same type is known as a
relationship set.
• The following relationship set depicts S1 as enrolled in C2, S2
as enrolled in C1, and S3 as registered in C3.
Degree of a Relationship Set
• The number of different entity sets participating in a relationship set
is called the degree of a relationship set.
• Unary
• Binary
• N-nary
Unary Relationship:
• When there is only ONE entity set participating in a relation,
the relationship is called a unary relationship.
• For example, one person is married to only one person.
Binary Relationship:
• When there are TWO entities set participating in a relationship,
the relationship is called a binary relationship.
• For example, a Student is enrolled in a Course.
n-ary Relationship:
• When there are n entities set participating in a relation, the
relationship is called an n-ary relationship.
Cardinality
• The number of times an entity of an entity set participates in a
relationship set is known as cardinality. Cardinality can be of
different types:
• One – to – one
• One – to – many
• Many – to – one
• Many – to – many
One-to-One:
• When each entity in each entity set can take part only once in
the relationship, the cardinality is one-to-one.
• Let us assume that a male can marry one female and a female
can marry one male. So the relationship will be one-to-one.
One-to-Many:
• In one-to-many mapping as well where each entity can be
related to more than one relationship and the total number of
tables that can be used in this is 2.
• Let us assume that one surgeon deparment can accomodate
many doctors. So the Cardinality will be 1 to M. It means one
deparment has many Doctors.
Many-to-One:
• When entities in one entity set can take part only once in the
relationship set and entities in other entity sets can take part
more than once in the relationship set, cardinality is many to
one.
• Let us assume that a student can take only one course but one
course can be taken by many students. So the cardinality will
be n to 1. It means that for one course there can be n students
but for one student, there will be only one course.
Many-to-One:
Many-to-Many:
• When entities in all entity sets can take part more than once in
the relationship cardinality is many to many.
• Let us assume that a student can take more than one course
and one course can be taken by many students. So the
relationship will be many to many.
Using Entity Sets
• One – to – one
Using Entity Sets
• One – to – many
Using Entity Sets
• Many – to – one
Using Entity Sets
• Many – to – many
Thank you!