Entity Relationship Model
Entity Relationship Model
(E-R Model)
Basic Concepts
Entity set
Attributes
Relational sets
Entity set
An entity is a thing or an object in a real
world.
Example
Person, car, house, book, publisher etc..,
Attributes
The properties that describe an entity are
called attributes.
Example
Customer (entity)
Customer_id, Customer_name, city are called
attributes.
Simple Attributes
Composite attributes
Single valued attributes
Multi valued attributes
Derived attribute
Simple attributes
An attribute that cannot be divided into further
subparts
Example
Roll_no, Acc_no
Composite attributes
An attribute that can be divided into a set of
subparts.
Example
Customer_name divided
Firstname , Middlename, Lastname
Address
Street, City, Pincode
Derived attribute
An attribute that is derived from other related attributes or
entities
Example
Age of a customer entity set is derived from the attribute
date_of _birth of a customer.
Relationship set
Relationship is an association among several
entities.
Example
Person and company relationship
Types of Relationships
Unary relationship
An unary relationship exists when an
association is maintained within a single
entity.
Example
Boss and worker are two employees
Manage is association
Binary relationship
A binary relationship exists when two entities
are associated.
Ternary relationship
A binary relationship exists when three entities
are associated.
Example
Quaternary relationship
A quaternary relationship exists when there
are four entities associated.
Example
Constraints
Two main important types of constraints
are: Mapping cardinalities
Participation constraints
Mapping Cardinalities
One to one
An entity in A is associated with at most
one entity in B.
An entity in B is associated with at most
one entity in A
One to Many
An entity in A is associated with any
number of (0 or more) entities in B.
An entity in B is associated with at most
one entity in A
Many to one
An entity in A is associated with at most
one entity in B.
An entity in B is associated with Zero or
more number of entities in A.
Many to Many
An entity in A is associated with any
number (0 or more) of entities in B and
vice versa.
Participation Constraints
Total participation
The participation of an entity set E in a
relationship set R is said to be total if every
entity in E participates in at least one
relationship in R.
Example
Salary relationship employees
Partial participation
If only some entities in E participate in
relationships in R
Employees relationship commission
Keys
A key allows to identify a set of attributes
or relationship.
Different types of keys are
Super key
Candidate key
Primary key
Foreign key
Super key
A super key is a set of one or more attributes that allows us to identify
uniquely an entity in the entity set,
Example
Roll_no attribute of the entity set student.
Candidate key
A candidate key is a minimal super key for which no proper subsets can be
formed.
Example
{studnt_name, student_class}
Primary key
Primary key is a key that has unique value
Example
Employee (eno, ename, salary, job, dno), eno is the primary key
Foreign key
An attribute in one relation whose value matches the primary key in some
other relation is called a foreign key.
Example
Employee (eno, ename, salary, job, dno)
Dept (dno,dname,dloc)
Dno is primary key and eno is primary key
So dno is foreign key
Construct an E-R diagram for a car insurance company whose customers own one or
more cars each. Each car has associated with it zero to any number of recorded
accidents.
Construct an E-R diagram for a hospital with a set of patients and a set of
medical doctors. Associate with each patient a log of various tests and
examinations conducted.