CUIT201

DATABASE SYSTEMS

ER Modelling
 Outline of Today’s Class
ER Diagram Tutorial in DBMS
•What is the ER Model?
•History of ER models
•What is ER Diagrams?
•Why use ER Diagrams?
•Components of ER Diagram
•Relationship
•Weak Entities
•Attributes
•Cardinality
•ER- Diagram Notations
•Steps to Create an ERD
•Best Practices for Developing Effective ER Diagrams
History of ER models

ER diagrams are a visual tool which is helpful to

represent the ER model. It was proposed by
Peter Chen in 1971 to create a uniform
convention which can be used for relational
database and network. He aimed to use an ER
model as a conceptual modeling approach.
What is ER Diagrams?

ERD displays the relationships of entity set

stored in a database.
They help you to explain the logical structure
of databases.

At first look, an ER diagram looks very similar

to the flowchart. However, ER Diagram
includes many specialized symbols, and its
meanings make this model unique.
What is ER Diagrams?
Facts about ER Diagram Model:
• ER model allows you to draw Database
Design
• It is an easy to use graphical tool for modeling
data
• Widely used in Database Design
• It is a GUI representation of the logical
structure of a Database
• It helps you to identifies the entities which exist
in a system and the relationships between
those entities
Why use ER Diagrams?
• Helps you to define terms related to entity relationship
modeling
• Provide a preview of how all your tables should connect,
what fields are going to be on each table
• Helps to describe entities, attributes, relationships
• ER diagrams are translatable into relational tables which
allows you to build databases quickly
• ER diagrams can be used by database designers as a
blueprint for implementing data in specific software
applications
• The database designer gains a better understanding of the
information to be contained in the database with the help of
ERP diagram
• ERD is allowed you to communicate with the logical
structure of the database to users
Components of the ER Diagram

• Entities
• Attributes
• Relationships
Components of the ER Diagram
WHAT IS ENTITY?

• A real-world thing either living or non-living that is easily

recognizable and nonrecognizable. It is anything in the
enterprise that is to be represented in our database. It may be
a physical thing or simply a fact about the enterprise or an
event that happens in the real world.
• An entity can be place, person, object, event or a concept,
which stores data in the database. The characteristics of
entities are must have an attribute, and a unique key. Every
entity is made up of some 'attributes' which represent that
entity.
Examples of entities:

• Person: Employee, Student, Patient

• Place: Store, Building
• Object: Machine, product, and Car
• Event: Sale, Registration, Renewal
• Concept: Account, Course
Entity set :

An entity set is a group of similar kind of

entities. It may contain entities with attribute
sharing similar values. Entities are represented
by their properties, which also called attributes.
All attributes have their separate values. For
example, a student entity may have a name,
age, class, as attributes.
Relationship
Relationship is nothing but an association
among two or more entities. E.g., Tom works in
the Chemistry department.

Entities take part in relationships. We can often identify relationships with verbs
or verb phrases.
For example:

You are attending this lecture

I am giving the lecture
Just loke entities, we can classify relationships
according to relationship-types:
A student attends a lecture
A lecturer is giving a lecture.
Weak Entities
A weak entity is a type of entity which doesn't have its key
attribute. It can be identified uniquely by considering the
primary key of another entity. For that, weak entity sets need to
have participation.

In above example, "Trans No" is a discriminator within a

group of transactions in an ATM.
Strong Entity Set Vs Weak Entity Set
Attributes
It is a single-valued property of either an entity-type or a
relationship-type.

For example, a lecture might have attributes: time, date,

duration, place, etc.

An attribute is represented by an Ellipse

Attributes cont’
Types of Description
Attributes
Simple attribute Simple attributes can't be divided any further. For example,
a student's contact number. It is also called an atomic
value.
Composite It is possible to break down composite attribute. For
attribute example, a student's full name may be further divided into
first name, second name, and last name.
Derived This type of attribute does not include in the physical
attribute database. However, their values are derived from other
attributes present in the database. For example, age
should not be stored directly. Instead, it should be derived
from the DOB of that employee.
Multivalued Multivalued attributes can have more than one values. For
attribute example, a student can have more than one mobile
number, email address, etc.
Cardinality
Defines the numerical attributes of the relationship between two entities or entity sets.

Different types of cardinal relationships are:

One-to-One Relationships
One-to-Many Relationships
May to One Relationships
Many-to-Many Relationships
Cardinality cont’
1.One-to-one:
One entity from entity set X can be associated with at most
one entity of entity set Y and vice versa.
Example: One student can register for numerous courses.
However, all those courses have a single line back to that
one student.
Cardinality cont’
2.One-to-many:
One entity from entity set X can be associated with multiple entities of
entity set Y, but an entity from entity set Y can be associated with at
least one entity.

For example, one class is consisting of multiple students.

Cardinality cont’
3. Many to One:

More than one entity from entity set X can be associated

with at most one entity of entity set Y. However, an entity
from entity set Y may or may not be associated with more
than one entity from entity set X.
For example, many students belong to the same class.

Student Class
Cardinality cont’
4. Many to Many:

One entity from X can be associated with more than one

entity from Y and vice versa.
For example, Students as a group are associated with
multiple faculty members, and faculty members can be
associated with multiple students.
ER- Diagram Notations
ER- Diagram is a visual representation of data that describe
how data is related to each other.
Rectangles: This symbol represent entity types
Ellipses : Symbol represent attributes
Diamonds: This symbol represents relationship types
Lines: It links attributes to entity types and entity types with
other relationship types
Primary key: attributes are underlined
Double Ellipses: Represent multi-valued attributes
Steps to Create an ERD

In a university, a Student enrolls in Courses. A

student must be assigned to at least one or more
Courses. Each course is taught by a single
Professor. To maintain instruction quality, a
Professor can deliver only one course
Step 1) Entity Identification
We have three entities
Student
Course
Professor
Step 2) Relationship Identification
We have the following two relationships
The student is assigned a course
Professor delivers a course
Step 3) Cardinality Identification
For them problem statement we know that,
A student can be assigned multiple courses
A Professor can deliver only one course
Step 4) Identify Attributes
You need to study the files, forms, reports, data currently
maintained by the organization to identify attributes. You
can also conduct interviews with various stakeholders to
identify entities. Initially, it's important to identify the
attributes without mapping them to a particular entity.

Once, you have a list of Attributes, you need to map them to

the identified entities. Ensure an attribute is to be paired
with exactly one entity. If you think an attribute should
belong to more than one entity, use a modifier to make it
unique.

Once the mapping is done, identify the primary Keys. If a

unique key is not readily available, create one.
Step 4) Identify Attributes cont’
Entity Primary Key Attribute

Student Student_ID StudentName

Professor Employee_ID ProfessorName

Course Course_ID CourseName

Step 4) Identify Attributes cont’

For Course Entity, attributes could be Duration, Credits, Assignments, etc.

For the sake of ease we have considered just one attribute.
Best ERD Design Practice
Eliminate any redundant entities or relationships

You need to make sure that all your entities and

relationships are properly labeled

There may be various valid approaches to an ER diagram.

You need to make sure that the ER diagram supports all
the data you need to store
You should assure that each entity only appears a single
time in the ER diagram
Name every relationship, entity, and attribute are
represented on your diagram
Never connect relationships to each other
You should use colors to highlight important portions of
the ER diagram
Summary
The ER model is a high-level data model diagram
ER diagrams are a visual tool which is helpful to represent the ER model
Entity relationship diagram displays the relationships of entity set stored in a
database
ER diagrams help you to define terms related to entity relationship modeling
ER model is based on three basic concepts: Entities, Attributes &
Relationships
An entity can be place, person, object, event or a concept, which stores data
in the database
Relationship is nothing but an association among two or more entities
A weak entity is a type of entity which doesn't have its key attribute
It is a single-valued property of either an entity-type or a relationship-type
It helps you to defines the numerical attributes of the relationship between
two entities or entity sets
ER- Diagram is a visual representation of data that describe how data is
related to each other
While Drawing ER diagram you need to make sure all your entities and
relationships are properly labeled.