Logical Database Design

and the Relational Model

1
 Relation
 Definition: A relation is a named, two-dimensional table of
data
– Table is made up of rows (records), and columns (attribute or field)
 Not all tables qualify as relations
 Requirements:
– Every relation has a unique name.
– Every attribute value is atomic (not multivalued, not composite)
– Every row is unique (can’t have two rows with exactly the same
values for all their fields)
– Attributes (columns) in tables have unique names
– The order of the columns is irrelevant
– The order of the rows is irrelevant

NOTE: all relations are in 1st Normal form

2
 Correspondence with ER
Model
 Relations (tables) correspond with entity types
and with many-to-many relationship types
 Rows correspond with entity instances and with
many-to-many relationship instances
 Columns correspond with attributes

 NOTE: The word relation (in relational database)

is NOT the same same the word relationship
(in ER model)
3
 Key Fields
 Keys are special fields that serve two main
purposes:
– Primary keys are unique identifiers of the relation in
question. Examples include employee numbers,
social security numbers, etc. This is how we can
guarantee that all rows are unique
– Foreign keys are identifiers that enable a dependent
relation (on the many side of a relationship) to refer to
its parent relation (on the one side of the relationship)
 Keys can be simple (a single field) or composite
(more than one field)
 Keys usually are used as indexes to speed up the
response to user queries (More on this in Ch. 6) 4
Figure 5-3 -- Schema for four relations (Pine Valley Furniture)

Primary Key
Foreign Key
(implements 1:N relationship
between customer and order)
Combined, these are a composite
primary key (uniquely identifies
the order line)…individually they
are foreign keys (implement M:N
relationship between order and
product)

5
 Integrity Constraints

 Domain Constraints
– Allowable values for an attribute. See Table
5-1
 Entity Integrity
– No primary key attribute may be null. All
primary key fields MUST have data
 Action Assertions
– Business rules. Recall from Ch. 4
6
 Integrity Constraints

 Referential Integrity – rule that states that any foreign key value
(on the relation of the many side) MUST match a primary key
value in the relation of the one side. (Or the foreign key can be
null)
– For example: Delete Rules
 Restrict – don’t allow delete of “parent” side if related rows exist in
“dependent” side
 Cascade – automatically delete “dependent” side rows that
correspond with the “parent” side row to be deleted
 Set-to-Null – set the foreign key in the dependent side to null if
deleting from the parent side  not allowed for weak entities

7
Figure 5-5:
Referential integrity constraints (Pine Valley Furniture)

Referential
integrity
constraints are
drawn via arrows
from dependent
to parent table

8
 Transforming EER Diagrams
into Relations
Mapping Regular Entities to Relations
1. Simple attributes: E-R attributes map
directly onto the relation
2. Composite attributes: Use only their
simple, component attributes
3. Multi-valued Attribute - Becomes a
separate relation with a foreign key taken
from the superior entity

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 Figure 5-8: Mapping a regular entity

(a) CUSTOMER
entity type with
simple attributes

(b) CUSTOMER relation

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 Figure 5-9: Mapping a composite attribute

(a) CUSTOMER
entity type with
composite
attribute

(b) CUSTOMER relation with address detail

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 Figure 5-10: Mapping a multivalued attribute
(a)

Multivalued attribute becomes a separate relation with foreign key

(b)

1 – to – many relationship between original entity and new relation

12
 Transforming EER Diagrams
into Relations
Mapping Weak Entities
– Becomes a separate relation with a
foreign key taken from the superior
entity
– Primary key composed of:
 Partial identifier of weak entity
 Primary key of identifying relation
(strong entity)
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Figure 5-11: Example of mapping a weak entity

(a) Weak entity DEPENDENT

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Figure 5-11(b) Relations resulting from weak entity

NOTE: the domain

constraint for the foreign
key should NOT allow null
value if DEPENDENT is a
weak entity

Foreign key

Composite primary key

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 Transforming EER Diagrams
into Relations
Mapping Binary Relationships
– One-to-Many - Primary key on the one side
becomes a foreign key on the many side
– Many-to-Many - Create a new relation with
the primary keys of the two entities as its
primary key
– One-to-One - Primary key on the mandatory
side becomes a foreign key on the optional
side
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Figure 5-12: Example of mapping a 1:M relationship

(a) Relationship between customers and orders

Note the mandatory

one

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Figure 5-12(b) Mapping the relationship

Again, no null value in the

foreign key…this is because
of the mandatory minimum
cardinality

Foreign key

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 Figure 5-13: Example of mapping an M:N relationship
(a) ER diagram (M:N)

The Supplies relationship will need to become a separate relatio

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 Figure 5-13(b) Three resulting relations

Composite primary key

New
Foreign key intersectio
n relation
Foreign key

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Figure 5-14: Mapping a binary 1:1 relationship

(a) Binary 1:1 relationship

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Figure 5-14(b) Resulting relations

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 Transforming EER Diagrams
into Relations
Mapping Associative Entities
– Identifier Not Assigned
 Default primary key for the association
relation is composed of the primary keys
of the two entities (as in M:N
relationship)
– Identifier Assigned
 It is natural and familiar to end-users

 Default identifier may not be unique

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Figure 5-15: Mapping an associative entity
(a) Associative entity

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Figure 5-15(b) Three resulting relations

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 Transforming EER Diagrams
into Relations
Mapping Unary Relationships
– One-to-Many - Recursive foreign key in the
same relation
– Many-to-Many - Two relations:
 One for the entity type

 One for an associative relation in which

the primary key has two attributes, both
taken from the primary key of the entity

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 Figure 5-17: Mapping a unary 1:N relationship

(a) EMPLOYEE entity

with Manages
relationship

(b) EMPLOYEE
relation with
recursive foreign
key

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Figure 5-18: Mapping a unary M:N relationship

(a) Bill-of-materials
relationships (M:N)

(b) ITEM and

COMPONENT
relations

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 Transforming EER Diagrams
into Relations
Mapping Ternary (and n-ary)
Relationships
–One relation for each entity and
one for the associative entity
–Associative entity has foreign
keys to each entity in the
relationship
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 Figure 5-19: Mapping a ternary relationship
(a) Ternary relationship with associative entity

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Figure 5-19(b) Mapping the ternary relationship

Remember that the

primary key MUST be
unique

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 Transforming EER Diagrams
into Relations
Mapping Supertype/Subtype Relationships
– One relation for supertype and for each
subtype
– Supertype attributes (including identifier and
subtype discriminator) go into supertype
relation
– Subtype attributes go into each subtype;
primary key of supertype relation also
becomes primary key of subtype relation
– 1:1 relationship established between
supertype and each subtype, with supertype
as primary table 32
Figure 5-20: Supertype/subtype relationships

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Figure 5-21:
Mapping Supertype/subtype relationships to relations

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 Data Normalization

 Primarily a tool to validate and improve

a logical design so that it satisfies
certain constraints that avoid
unnecessary duplication of data
 The process of decomposing relations
with anomalies to produce smaller,
well-structured relations

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 Well-Structured Relations
 A relation that contains minimal data
redundancy and allows users to insert, delete,
and update rows without causing data
inconsistencies
 Goal is to avoid anomalies
– Insertion Anomaly – adding new rows forces user
to create duplicate data
– Deletion Anomaly – deleting rows may cause a
loss of data that would be needed for other future
rows
– Modification Anomaly – changing data in a row
General rulechanges
forces of thumb: a table
to other should
rows notof
because pertain to
duplication
more than one entity type
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 Example – Figure 5.2b

Question – Is this a relation? Answer – Yes: unique rows and no

multivalued attributes

Question – What’s the primary key? Answer – Composite: Emp_ID,

Course_Title

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 Anomalies in this Table
 Insertion – can’t enter a new employee
without having the employee take a class
 Deletion – if we remove employee 140, we
lose information about the existence of a Tax
Acc class
 Modification – giving a salary increase to
employee 100 forces us to update multiple
Why do these anomalies exist?
records
Because we’ve combined two themes (entity
types) into one relation. This results in
duplication, and an unnecessary dependency
between the entities 38
 Functional Dependencies and Keys

 Functional Dependency: The value of

one attribute (the determinant)
determines the value of another
attribute
 Candidate Key:
– A unique identifier. One of the candidate
keys will become the primary key
 E.g. perhaps there is both credit card number
and SS# in a table…in this case both are
candidate keys
– Each non-key field is functionally
dependent on every candidate key
39
5.22 -Steps in
normalization

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 First Normal Form

 No multivalued attributes
 Every attribute value is atomic
 Fig. 5-2a is not in 1st Normal Form
(multivalued attributes)  it is not
a relation
st
 Fig. 5-2b is in 1 Normal form
st
 All relations are in 1 Normal Form

41
 Second Normal Form
 1NFplus every non-key attribute is fully
functionally dependent on the ENTIRE
primary key
– Every non-key attribute must be defined by
the entire key, not by only part of the key
– No partial functional dependencies
 Fig. 5-2b is NOT in 2nd Normal Form (see
fig 5-23b)

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 Fig 5.23(b) – Functional
Dependencies in EMPLOYEE2
Dependency on entire primary key

EmpID CourseTitle Nam DeptNam Salar DateComplete

e e y d

Dependency on only part of the key

EmpID, CourseTitle  DateCompleted

EmpID  Name, DeptName, Salary

Therefore, NOT in 2nd Normal Form!!

43
 nd
Getting it into 2 Normal Form
 See p193 – decomposed into two separate
relations

Both are full

functional
dependencie
EmpID Nam DeptNam Salar
e e y s

EmpID CourseTitle DateComplete

d

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 Third Normal Form

 2NF PLUS no transitive

dependencies (one attribute
functionally determines a second,
which functionally determines a third)
 Fig. 5-24, 5-25

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Figure 5-24 -- Relation with transitive dependency
(a) SALES relation with simple data

46
 Figure 5-24(b) Relation with transitive dependency

CustID  Name
CustID  Salesperson BUT
CustID  Region
CustID  Salesperson  Region
All this is OK Transitive
(2nd NF)
dependency
(not 3rd NF) 47
Figure 5.25 -- Removing a transitive dependency
(a) Decomposing the SALES relation

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 Figure 5.25(b) Relations in 3NF

Salesperson  Region

CustID  Name
CustID  Salesperson

Now, there are no transitive dependencies…

Both relations are in 3rd NF
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 Other Normal Forms
(from Appendix B)
 Boyce-Codd NF
– All determinants are candidate keys…there is no
determinant that is not a unique identifier
 4th NF
– No multivalued dependencies
 5th NF
– No “lossless joins”
 Domain-key NF
– The “ultimate” NF…perfect elimination of all possible
anomalies

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