Lesson 8: Introduction to Databases

E-R Data Modeling

Contents

Introduction to Databases

Abstraction, Schemas, and Views

Data Models

Database Management System (DBMS) Components

Entity Relationship Data Model

E-R Diagrams

Database Design Issues

Constraints

Converting E-R Model to Schemas

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 Database Management System (DBMS)

DBMS contains information about a particular enterprise
 Collection of interrelated data
 Set of programs to access the data
 An environment that is both convenient and efficient to use

Database Applications:
 Banking: all transactions
 Airlines: reservations, schedules
 Universities: registration, grades
 Sales: customers, products, purchases
 Online retailers: order tracking, customized recommendations
 Manufacturing: production, inventory, orders, supply chain
 Human resources: employee records, salaries, tax deductions

Databases touch all aspects of our lives

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Purpose of Database Systems

In the early days, database applications were built directly
on top of file systems

Drawbacks of using file systems to store data:
 Data redundancy and inconsistency

Multiple file formats, duplication of information in different files
 Difficulty in accessing data

Need to write a new program to carry out each new task
 Data isolation multiple files and formats
 Integrity problems

Integrity constraints
(e.g. account balance > 0) become buried in
program code rather than being stated explicitly

Hard to add new constraints or change existing ones
 Atomicity of updates

Failuresmay leave database in an inconsistent state with partial
updates carried out

Example: Transfer of funds from one account to another should either
complete or not happen at all
 Concurrent access by multiple users

Concurrent accessed needed for performance

Uncontrolled concurrent accesses can lead to inconsistencies

Database systems offer solutions to these problems
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 Levels of Abstraction

Physical level: describes how a record (e.g., customer) is
stored.

Logical level: describes data stored in database, and the
relationships among the data.
type customer = record
customer_id : string;
customer_name : string;
customer_street : string;
customer_zip : integer;
end;

View level: View level

application programs
hide details of data View 1 View 2 ... View n
types. Views can also
hide information (such
as an employees salary) for
security and confidentiality Logical level
purposes.

Physical level

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Instances and Schemas

Schema the logical structure of the database
 Example: The database consists of information about a set of customers
and accounts and the relationship between them
 Analogous to type information of a variable in a program
 Physical schema: database design at the physical level
 Logical schema: database design at the logical level

Instance the actual content of the database at a particular point in
time
 Analogous to the value of a variable

Physical Data Independence the ability to modify the physical
schema without changing the logical schema
 Applications depend on the logical schema
 In general, the interfaces between the various levels and components
should be well defined so that changes in some parts do not seriously
influence others.

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 Data Models

A collection of tools for describing
 Data
 Data relationships
 Data semantics
 Data constraints

Relational model

Entity-Relationship data model
 mainly for database design
 designing the database schema

Object-based data models
 Object-oriented and Object-relational databases

Semistructured data model (XML)

Other older models:
 Network model
 Hierarchical model

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Data Oriented Languages

Data Manipulation Languages (DML)
 Language for accessing and manipulating the data organized by
the appropriate data model (also known as query language)
 Two classes of languages

Procedural user specifies what data is required and how to get
those data

Declarative (nonprocedural) user specifies what data is required
without specifying how to get those data
 SQL is the most widely used query language

Data Definition Language (DDL)
 Specification of the database schema definition
Example:
create table account (account_number: char(10), balance: integer)
 DDL compiler generates a set of tables stored in a data dictionary
 Data dictionary contains metadata (i.e., data about data)

Database schema

Data storage and definition of data
Specifies the storage structure and access methods used

Integrity constraints
Domain constraints
Referential integrity (references constraint in SQL)
Assertions

Authorization

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 Relational Model

Example of tabular data in the relational model
 Columns are called attributes

 Bad design

A Sample Relational Database

The customer table The account table

The depositor table

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SQL

SQL: widely used non-procedural language
 Example: Find the name of the customer with customer-id 192-83-
7465
select customer.customer_name
from customer
where customer.customer_id = 192-83-7465
 Example: Find the balances of all accounts held by the customer
with customer-id 192-83-7465
select account.balance
from depositor, account
where depositor.customer_id = 192-83-7465 and
depositor.account_number = account.account_number

Application programs generally access databases through
one of
 Language extensions to allow embedded SQL
 Application program interface (e.g., ODBC/JDBC) which allow SQL
queries to be sent to a database

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 Database Design
The process of designing the general structure of the
database:

Logical Design Deciding on the database schema.

Database design requires that we find a good collection
of relation schemas.
 Business decision What attributes should we record in the
database?
 Computer Science decision What relation schemas should we
have and how should the attributes be distributed among the
various relation schemas?

Physical Design Deciding on the physical layout of the

database

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The Entity-Relationship Model

Models an enterprise as a collection of entities and
relationships
 Entity: a thing or object in the enterprise that is distinguishable
from other objects

Described by a set of attributes
 Relationship: an association among several entities

Represented diagrammatically by an entity-relationship
diagram:

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 Object-Relational Data Models

Extend the relational data model by including object
orientation and constructs to deal with added data
types.

Allow attributes of tuples to have complex types,
including non-atomic values such as nested relations.

Preserve relational foundations, in particular the
declarative access to data, while extending modeling
power.

Provide upward compatibility with existing relational
languages.

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XML: Extensible Markup Language

Defined by the WWW Consortium (W3C)

Originally intended as a document markup language not
a database language

The ability to specify new tags, and to create nested tag
structures made XML a great way to exchange data, not
just documents

XML has become the basis for all new generation data
interchange formats.

A wide variety of tools is available for parsing, browsing
and querying XML documents/data

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 Storage Management

Storage manager is a program module that provides the
interface between the low-level data stored in the
database and the application programs and queries
submitted to the system.

The storage manager is responsible to the following
tasks:
 Interaction with the file manager
 Efficient storing, retrieving and updating of data

Issues:
 Storage access
 File organization
 Indexing and hashing

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Query Processing
1. Parsing and
translation
2. Optimization
3. Evaluation

Alternative ways of evaluating a given query

 Equivalent expressions
 Different algorithms for each operation

Cost difference between a good and a bad way of
evaluating a query can be enormous

Need to estimate the cost of operations
 Depends critically on statistical information about relations which
the database must maintain
 Need to estimate statistics for intermediate results to compute cost
of complex expressions
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 Transaction Management

A transaction is a collection of operations that performs a
single logical function in a database application
 E.g., transfer a given amount from one account to another

Transaction-management component ensures that the

database remains in a consistent (correct) state despite
system failures (e.g., power failures and operating system
crashes) and transaction failures
 E.g., tries to plan (schedule) transactions to keep consistency

Concurrency-control manager controls the interaction

among the concurrent transactions, to ensure the
consistency of the database
 E.g., has to resolve deadlock states

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Database Users
Users are differentiated by the way they are expected to
interact with the system

Application programmers interact with system
through DML calls

Sophisticated users form requests in a database
query language

Specialized users write specialized database
applications that do not fit into the traditional data
processing framework

Naive users invoke one of the permanent application
programs that have been written previously by an
application programmer
 Examples: E-shopping, Internet banking, University clerical staff
accessing student database

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 Database Administrator

Coordinates all the activities of the database system
 the database administrator has a good understanding of the
enterprises information resources and needs.

Database administrator's duties include:
 Schema definition
 Storage structure and access method definition
 Schema and physical organization modification
 Granting user authority to access the database
 Specifying integrity constraints
 Acting as liaison with users
 Monitoring performance and responding to changes in
requirements

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E-R Data Modeling: Entities

A database can be modeled as:
 a collection of entities,
 relationships among entities.

Technique called Entity-Relationship Modeling (E-R model)

An entity is an object that exists and is distinguishable from
other objects.
 Example: specific person, company, event, plant
 Entities are usually expressed by nouns

Entities have properties denotes as attributes
 Example: people have names and addresses

An entity set is a set of entities of the same type that share
the same properties.
 Example: set of persons, companies, trees, loans

customer loan
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 Attributes

An entity is represented by a set of attributes, that is
descriptive properties possessed by all members of an
entity set.
Example:
customer = (customer_id,customer_name,
customer_street, customer_city )
loan = (loan_number, amount )

Domain the set of permitted values for each attribute

Attribute types:
 Simple and composite attributes
 Single-valued and multi-valued attributes

Example: multivalued attribute: phone_numbers
 Derived attributes

Can be computed from other attributes

Example: age, given date_of_birth

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Composite Attributes

Composite
attributes

Component
attributes

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 Data Modeling: Relationships

A relationship creates an association among several
entities
Example:
Hayes deposits to A-102
customer entity relationship account entity
 Relationships are often expressed by verb phrases

A relationship set is a set of associations between two

(or more) entity sets
 mathematical relation among n 2 entities, each taken from an
entity set
{(e1, e2, en) | e1 E1, e2 E2, , en En}
where (e1, e2, , en) is a relationship
 Example:
(Hayes, A-102) deposits_to

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Relationship Set owe

customer loan
relationship set
owe

Relationship sets are expressed by tables

Relationship sets can have
attributes
 Example: Date of last access

owe
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 Degree of a Relationship Set

Refers to number of entity sets that participate in a
relationship

Relationship sets that involve two entity sets are binary
(or degree two).
 Most relationship sets in a database system are binary.

Relationship sets may involve more than two entity sets
 Example: Suppose employees of a bank may have jobs
(responsibilities) at multiple branches, with different jobs at
different branches. Then there is a ternary relationship set
between entity sets employee, job, and branch

Relationships between more than two entity sets are
rare. Most relationships are binary
 We will mostly speak about binary relationships

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Relationship Mapping Cardinality

Cardinality expresses the number of entities to which
another entity can be associated via a relationship set
 Most useful in describing binary relationship sets
 For a binary relationship set the mapping cardinality must be
one of the following types:

one to one one to many

many to one many to many

Note: Some elements in A and B may not be mapped to any elements in the other set

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 Keys

A super key of an entity set is a set of one or more
attributes whose values uniquely determine each entity.

A candidate key of an entity set is a minimal super key
 Customer_id is candidate key of customer
 account_number is candidate key of account

Although several candidate keys may exist, one of the
candidate keys is selected to be the primary key

The combination of primary keys of the participating
entity sets forms a super key of a relationship set
 (customer_id, account_number) is the super key of depositor
 NOTE: this means a pair of entity sets can have at most one
relationship in a particular relationship set.

Example: if we wish to track all access_dates to each account by
each customer, we cannot assume a relationship for each access.
We can use a multivalued attribute though

Must consider the mapping cardinality of the relationship
set when deciding what are the candidate keys

Need to consider semantics of relationship set in
selecting the primary key in case of more than one
candidate key
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E-R Diagrams

Rectangles represent entity sets.

Diamonds represent relationship sets.

Lines link attributes to entity sets and entity sets to
relationship sets.

Ellipses represent attributes
 Double ellipses represent multivalued attributes.
 Dashed ellipses denote derived attributes.

Underline indicates primary key attributes

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 E-R Diagram With Composite, Multivalued, and
Derived Attributes

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Relationship Sets with Attributes

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 Roles

Entity sets of a relationship need not be distinct

The labels manager and worker are called roles
 they specify how employee entities interact via the works_for
relationship set.

Roles are indicated in E-R diagrams by labeling the lines
that connect diamonds to rectangles.

Role labels are optional, and are used to clarify semantics
of the relationship

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Cardinality Constraints

We express cardinality constraints by drawing either a
directed line (), signifying one, or an undirected line
(), signifying many, between the relationship set and
the entity set.

One-to-one relationship:
 A customer is associated with at most one loan via the
relationship borrower
 A loan is associated with at most one customer via borrower

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 One-To-Many Relationship

In the one-to-many relationship a loan is associated
with at most one customer via borrower, a customer is
associated with several (including 0) loans via
borrower

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Many-To-One Relationships

In a many-to-one relationship a loan is associated
with several (including 0) customers via borrower, a
customer is associated with at most one loan via
borrower

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 Many-To-Many Relationship

A customer is associated with several (possibly 0) loans via
borrower

A loan is associated with several (possibly 0) customers via
borrower

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Participation of an Entity Set in a Relationship Set

Total participation (indicated by double line): every entity
in the entity set participates in at least one relationship in
the relationship set
 E.g. participation of loan in borrower is total

every loan must have a customer associated to it via borrower

Partial participation: some entities may not participate in
any relationship in the relationship set
 Example: participation of customer in borrower is partial

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 Alternative Notation for Cardinality Limits

Cardinality limits can also express participation

constraints

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Design Issues

Use of entity sets vs. attributes
 Choice mainly depends on the structure of the enterprise being
modeled, and on the semantics associated with the attribute in
question.

Use of entity sets vs. relationship sets
 Possible guideline is to designate a relationship set to describe an
action that occurs between entities

Binary versus n-ary relationship sets
 Although it is possible to replace any non-binary (n-ary, for n > 2)
relationship set by a number of distinct binary relationship sets, a
n-ary relationship set shows more clearly that several entities
participate in a single relationship.

Placement of relationship attributes
 Is it reasonable to add the intended attribute to the relationship
set?

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 Binary Vs. Non-Binary Relationships

Some relationships that appear to be non-binary may
be better represented using binary relationships
 E.g. A ternary relationship parents, relating a child to his/her
father and mother, is best replaced by two binary relationships,
father and mother

Using two binary relationships allows partial information (e.g. only
mother being know)
 But there are some relationships that are naturally non-binary

Example: works_on

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Converting Non-Binary Relationships to Binary

In general, any non-binary relationship can be represented
using binary relationships by creating an artificial entity set.
 Replace R between entity sets A, B and C by an entity set E, and
three relationship sets:
1. RA, relating E and A 2.RB, relating E and B
3. RC, relating E and C
 Create a special identifying attribute for E
 Add any attributes of R to E
 For each relationship (ai , bi , ci) in R, create
1. a new entity ei in the entity set E 2. add (ei , ai ) to RA
3. add (ei , bi ) to RB 4. add (ei , ci ) to RC

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 Converting Non-Binary Relationships (Cont.)

Also need to translate constraints
 Translating all constraints may not be possible
 There may be instances in the translated schema that
cannot correspond to any instance of R

Exercise: add constraints to the relationships RA, RB and RC to
ensure that a newly created entity corresponds to exactly one entity
in each of entity sets A, B and C
 We can avoid creating an identifying attribute by making E a
weak entity set (described shortly) identified by the three
relationship sets

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Mapping Cardinalities affect ER Design

Can make access-date an attribute of account, instead of
a relationship attribute, if each account can have only one
customer
 That is, the relationship from account to customer is many to one,
or equivalently, customer to account is one to many

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 Weak Entity Sets

An entity set that does not have a primary key is referred to
as a weak entity set.
 The existence of a weak entity set depends on the existence of an
identifying entity set

It
must relate to the identifying entity set via a total, one-to-many
relationship set from the identifying to the weak entity set

Identifying relationship depicted using a double diamond
 The discriminator (or partial key) of a weak entity set is the set of
attributes that distinguishes among all the entities of a weak entity set.
 The primary key of a weak entity set is formed by the primary key of
the strong entity set on which the weak entity set is existence
dependent, plus the weak entity sets discriminator.

We depict a weak entity set by double rectangles.
 We underline the discriminator of a weak entity set with a dashed line.

payment_number discriminator of the payment entity set

Primary key for payment (loan_number, payment_number)

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E-R Design Decisions

The use of an attribute or entity set to represent an
object.

Whether a real-world concept is best expressed by an
entity set or a relationship set.

The use of a ternary relationship versus a pair of binary
relationships.

The use of a strong or weak entity set.

The use of specialization/generalization contributes
to modularity in the design.

The use of aggregation can treat the aggregate entity
set as a single unit without concern for the details of its
internal structure.

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 E-R Diagram for a Banking Enterprise

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Summary of Symbols Used in E-R Notation

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 Reduction to Relation Schemas

Primary keys allow entity sets and relationship sets to be
expressed uniformly as relation schemas that represent the
contents of the database.
 A database which conforms to an E-R diagram can be represented
by a collection of schemas.
 For each entity set and relationship set there is a unique schema
that is assigned the name of the corresponding entity set or
relationship set.
 Each schema has a number of columns (generally corresponding to
attributes), which have unique names

A strong entity set reduces to a schema with the same
attributes.

A weak entity set becomes a table that includes a column
for the primary key of the identifying strong entity set
payment = (loan_number, payment_number,
payment_date, payment_amount)

A many-to-many relationship set is represented as a
schema with attributes for the primary keys of the two
participating entity sets
 and perhaps any descriptive attributes of the relationship set.
 Example: schema for relationship set borrower
borrower = (customer_id, loan_number)
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Redundancy of Schemas

Many-to-one and one-to-many relationship sets that are
total on the many-side can be represented by adding an
extra attribute to the many side, containing the primary
key of the one side
 Example: Instead of creating a schema for relationship set
account_branch, add an attribute branch_name to the schema
arising from entity set account

For one-to-one relationship sets, either side can be chosen

to act as the many side
 That is, extra attribute can be added to either of the tables
corresponding to the two entity sets

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 Composite and Multivalued Attributes

Composite attributes are flattened out by creating a
separate attribute for each component attribute
 Example: given entity set customer with composite attribute name
with component attributes first_name and last_name the schema
corresponding to the entity set has two attributes
name.first_name and name.last_name

A multivalued attribute M of an entity E is represented by
a separate schema EM
 Schema EM has attributes corresponding to the primary key of E
and an attribute corresponding to multivalued attribute M
 Example: Multivalued attribute dependent_names of employee is
represented by a schema:
employee_dependent_names = ( employee_id, dname)
 Each value of the multivalued attribute maps to a separate tuple of
the relation on schema EM

For example, an employee entity with primary key 123-45-6789 and
dependents Jack and Jane maps to two tuples:
(123-45-6789 , Jack) and (123-45-6789 , Jane)

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End of Lesson 8

Questions?