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Unary

The document discusses different types of unary relationships, including 1:1, 1:M, and M:M relationships. It provides examples of unary relationships for employees managing other employees, family relationships like marriage and parenthood, and relating an entity to itself. The document also discusses solutions for modeling many-to-many interpersonal relationships, including using an associative entity to link the relationship to relationship types and people on both sides of the relationship. This allows the relationship to be modeled with a single record while representing the relationship in both directions.

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dugizul
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32 views

Unary

The document discusses different types of unary relationships, including 1:1, 1:M, and M:M relationships. It provides examples of unary relationships for employees managing other employees, family relationships like marriage and parenthood, and relating an entity to itself. The document also discusses solutions for modeling many-to-many interpersonal relationships, including using an associative entity to link the relationship to relationship types and people on both sides of the relationship. This allows the relationship to be modeled with a single record while representing the relationship in both directions.

Uploaded by

dugizul
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Unary Relationships

On the Job
manages

Supervisor

is managed by

Worker

Is this a legitimate design? Do you see problems with it?

The Family
marries

Husba nd

is married to

Wife

fathers

is child of

C hild
is child of bears

Is this a legitimate design? Do you see problems with it?

Complicated Relationships Among People*


Workers have supervisors, who also have supervisors Men and women can marry more than once Children born out of wedlock Half-brothers and -sisters What design will accommodate all of these?
* Not intended as a comment on social mores.

Relating an Entity to Itself


Emplo y ee Perso n

supervises supervised by

related to is relative of

An entity can be related to itself. Called a unary or recursive relationship Where do you put the foreign keys?

Unary 1:M
Emp lo y ee Emp lo y eeID La st N a me First N a me M id N a me S u p erv iso rID [ FK ]
supervises supervised by

Recursive foreign key placed in entity Name of FK must be different from name of PK Second instance of entity required in queries and relationships screen

Unary 1:1 or M:M


Perso n Perso n ID La st N a me First N a me M id N a me
is target of refers to

In t erp ersR ela t R ela tio n sh ip Ty p e R ela tio n sh ip N a me R ela tio n sh ip D esc

is source of contains

R ela tio n sh ip [A s] is of type Fro mPerso n [ FK ] describes To Perso n [ FK] R ela tio n sh ip Ty p e [FK ] Fro mD a t e To D a te

Associative entity required

Unary 1:1 or M:M

Name of FKs must be different in associative entity Second instance of entity required in queries and relationships screen

Common Uses of Unary Relationships


People
sometimes supertype/subtype required to fully document relationship

Bill of Materials
products composed of other products

Political Geography
Precincts within cities within counties within states within countries within continents

More about the 1:1 or M:M Interpersonal Unary Relationship


Interpersonal relationships are often two-way, with the reciprocal relationship sometimes having a different name
Parent-child Sibling-sibling Spouse-spouse Supervisor-worker Employer-employee

More about the 1:1 or M:M Interpersonal Unary Relationship


In general, it is better to have only one record for a given relationship
Do not have
One record where person A is child of B A second record where B is parent of A

Instead
A single record that records both directions of the relationship

Requires that there be the ability to indicate the reciprocal of a relationship

A Solution for the 1:1 or M:M Interpersonal Unary Relationship

A Relationship Type table is created to hold both forward and reciprocal terms for the relationship

A Solution for the 1:1 or M:M Interpersonal Unary Relationship


Only one entry per pair (if 1:1)

A Solution for the 1:1 or M:M Interpersonal Unary Relationship


Carefully define the directionality
In these examples
[second person] is the [relationship] of [first person] [first person] is the [reciprocal] of [second person]

A Solution for the 1:1 or M:M Interpersonal Unary Relationship


Create a view for one direction that includes PersonID, Name, and Relationship with Other Person

A Solution for the 1:1 or M:M Interpersonal Unary Relationship


Expression that returns the Relationship with Other Person
Relationship: [tblRelationshipType]![RelationshipType] & " of " & fnNameFirstLast([tblPerson_1]![FirstName], [tblPerson_1]![MidName],[tblPerson_1]![LastName])

A Solution for the 1:1 or M:M Interpersonal Unary Relationship


Create a view for the reciprocal direction

A Solution for the 1:1 or M:M Interpersonal Unary Relationship


Data entry form allows for the specification of relationship in one direction

A Solution for the 1:1 or M:M Interpersonal Unary Relationship

Already-entered reciprocal relationships are shown to discourage duplicate entries

A Solution for the 1:1 or M:M Interpersonal Unary Relationship


A UNION query returns all records from both views
SELECT * FROM vueSecondPersonRelationship UNION SELECT * FROM vueFirstPersonRelationship; Must be entered in SQL view Normally, UNION query eliminates duplicate rows

A Solution for the 1:1 or M:M Interpersonal Unary Relationship


A UNION query returns all records from both views

There is only one relationship record for persons 1 and 2, but both directions of the relationship are returned

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