.

UNIT 1 NOTES

Database System Applications

● Database:

A database is a collection of data, typically describing the activities of one or more related
organizations.

Example: a university database might contain information about the following:

• Entities such as students, faculty, courses, and classrooms.
• Relationships between entities, such as students' enrollment in courses, faculty teaching
courses, and the use of rooms for courses.

Database Management System (DBMS)

● A database management system, or DBMS, is software designed to assist in maintaining
and utilizing large collections of data.
● The alternative to using a DBMS is to store the data in files and write application-specific
code to manage it.

A Historical Perspective or History of Database Systems

● Finding information from a huge volume of papers or deleting/modifying an entry is a

difficult task in pen and paper based approach.
● To overcome the hassles faced in manual record keeping, it is desirable to computerize
storage of data.
● From the earliest days of computers, storing and manipulating data have been a major
application focus.
● In the late 1960s, IBM developed the Information Management System (IMS) DBMS,
used even today in many major installations.
● IMS formed the basis for an alternative data representation framework called the
hierarchical data model.
● In 1970, Edgar Codd, at IBM's San Jose Research Laboratory, proposed a new data
representation framework called the relational data model.
● In the 1980s, the relational model consolidated its position as the dominant DBMS
paradigm, and database systems continued to gain widespread use.
 ● SQL was standardized in the late 1980s, and the current standard, SQL: 1999, was
adopted by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and International
Organization for Standardization (ISO).
● Specialized systems have been developed by numerous vendors for creating data
warehouses, consolidating data from several databases, and for carrying out specialized
analysis.
● Commercially, database management systems represent one of the largest and most
vigorous market segments.

FILE SYSTEMS VERSUS DBMS

File System     Database Management System (DBMS)

1. It is a software system that manages 1. It is a software system used for creating and managing the
and controls the data files in a computer databases. DBMS provides a systematic way to access, update,
system. and delete data.

2. File system does not support multi-

2. Database Management System supports multi-user access.
user access.

3.  Data consistency is less in the file

3. Data consistency is more due to the use of normalization.
system.

4. File system is not secured. 4. The Database Management System is highly secured.

5. File system is used for storing the 5. Database management system is used for storing the
unstructured data. structured data.

6. In the file system, data redundancy is

6. In DBMS, Data redundancy is low.
high.

7. No data backup and recovery process

7. There is a backup recovery for data in DBMS.
is present in a file system.

8. Handling a file system is easy. 8. Handling a DBMS is complex. 

 9. Cost of a file system is less than the 9. Cost of the database management system is more than the file
DBMS. system.

10. If one application fails, it does not 10. If the database fails, it affects all applications which depend
affect other applications in a system. on it.

11. In the file system, data cannot be

11. In DBMS, data can be shared as it is stored at one place in a
shared because it is distributed in
database.
different files.

12. These systems do not provide

12. This system provides a concurrency facility.
concurrency facilities.

13. Example: NTFS (New technology

13. Example: Oracle, MySQL, MS SQL Server, DB2,
file system), EXT (Extended file
Microsoft Access, etc.
system), etc.

ADVANTAGES OF A DBMS

Data Independence: The DBMS provides an abstract view of the data that hides data
representation and storage details.
Efficient Data Access: A DBMS utilizes a variety of sophisticated techniques to store and
retrieve data efficiently.
Data Integrity and Security: If data is always accessed through the DBMS, the DBMS can
enforce integrity constraints. For example, before inserting salary information for an employee,
the DBMS can check that the department budget is not exceeded. Also, it can enforce access
controls that govern what data is visible to different classes of users.
Data Administration: When several users share the data, centralizing the administration of data
can offer significant improvements.
Concurrent Access and Crash Recovery: A DBMS schedules concurrent accesses to the data
in such a manner that users can think of the data as being accessed by only one user at a time.
Further, the DBMS protects users from the effects of system failures.

Reduced Application Development Time: The high-level interface to the data, facilitates quick
application development.

Database System Applications

Applications where we use Database Management Systems are:

 • Telecom: There is a database to keep track of the information regarding calls made, network
usage, customer details etc. Without the database systems it is hard to maintain that huge
amount of data that keeps updating every millisecond.
• Industry: Where it is a manufacturing unit, warehouse or distribution centre, each one needs
a database to keep the records of ins and outs. For example, a distribution centre should keep
a track of the product units that are supplied into the centre as well as the products that got
delivered out from the distribution centre on each day; this is where DBMS comes into
picture.
• Banking System: For storing customer info, tracking day to day credit and debit
transactions, generating bank statements etc. All this work has been done with the help of
Database management systems.
• Education sector: Database systems are frequently used in schools and colleges to store and
retrieve the data regarding student details, staff details, course details, exam details, payroll
data, attendance details, fees details etc. There is a hell lot amount of interrelated data that
needs to be stored and retrieved in an efficient manner.
• Online shopping: You must be aware of the online shopping websites such as Amazon,
Flipkart etc. These sites store the product information, your addresses and preferences, credit
details and provide you with the relevant list of products based on your query. All this
involves a Database management system.

DESCRIBING AND STORING DATA IN A DBMS

DATA MODEL

● A data model is a collection of high-level data description constructs that hide many
low-level storage details.
● A DBMS allows a user to define the data to be stored in terms of a data model.

● Most database management systems today are based on the relational data model.

● A semantic data model is a more abstract, high-level data model that makes it easier for
a user to come up with a good initial description of the data in an enterprise.
● A widely used semantic data model called the entity-relationship (ER) model allows us to
pictorially denote entities and the relationships among them.

Data model types

• Relational model
• Entity-Relationship data model (mainly for database design)
• Object-based data models (Object-oriented and Object-relational)
• Other older models:
– Network model
– Hierarchical model
Relational model
 ● The central data description constructed in this model is a relation, which can be thought
of as a set of records.
● A description of data in terms of a data model is called a schema.

● In the relational model, the schema for a relation specifies its name, the name of each
field (or attribute or column), and the type of each field.
● As an example, student information in a university database may be stored in a relation
with the following schema:

Students ( sid: string, name: string, login: string, age: integer, gpa: real)

● The preceding schema says that each record in the Students relation has five fields, with
field names and types as indicated.
● An example instance of the Students relation appears in Figure.

0
Figure: An Instance of the Students Relation

● Every row follows the schema of the Students relation.

● The schema call therefore can be regarded as a template for describing a student.

● We can make the description of a collection of students more precise by specifying

integrity constraints, which are conditions that the records in a relation must satisfy.
● For example, we could specify that every student has a unique sid value.

Entity-Relationship Model

● Entity-Relationship Model or simply ER Model is a high-level data model diagram.

● In this model, we represent the real-world problem in the pictorial form to make it easy
for the stakeholders to understand.
 ● It is also very easy for the developers to understand the system by just looking at the ER
diagram.
● We use the ER diagram as a visual tool to represent an ER Model. 

Object-Oriented Data Model

● The real-world problems are more closely represented through the object-oriented data
model.

● In this model, both the data and relationship are present in a single structure known as an
object.

● We can store audio, video, images, etc in the database which was not possible in the
relational model (although you can store audio and video in a relational database, it is
advised not to store in the relational database).

● In this model, two or more objects are connected through links. We use this link to relate
one object to other objects. 

● This can be understood by the example given below.

Object-Relational Model
● As the name suggests it is a combination of both the relational model and the object-
oriented model.

● This model was built to fill the gap between object-oriented model and the relational
model.

● We can have many advanced features like we can make complex data types according to
our requirements using the existing data types.

● The problem with this model is that this can get complex and difficult to handle. So,
proper understanding of this model is required.

Hierarchical Model
● The Hierarchical Model was the first DBMS model.

● This model organizes the data in the hierarchical tree structure.

● The hierarchy starts from the root which has root data and then it expands in the form of a
tree adding a child node to the parent node.

● This model easily represents some of the real-world relationships like food recipes,
sitemap of a website etc. 

● Example: We can represent the relationship between the shoes present on a shopping
website in the following way:
Network Model
● This model is an extension of the hierarchical model.

● It was the most popular model before the relational model.

● This model is the same as the hierarchical model; the only difference is that a record can
have more than one parent.

● It replaces the hierarchical tree with a graph.

● Example: In the example below we can see that node student has two parents i.e. CSE
Department and Library. This was earlier not possible in the hierarchical model.
LEVELS OF DATA ABSTRACTION

Three level architecture of database design.

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

Logical level: describes data stored in a database, and the relationships among the data.

type customer = record

customer_id : string;
customer_name : string;
customer_street : string;
customer_city : string;
end;

View level: application programs hide details of data types. Views can also hide information
(such as an employee’s salary) for security purposes.
DATA INDEPENDENCE

The ability to modify the schema in one level without affecting the schema in the next higher
level is called data independence.

• Logical data independence: The ability to modify the logical schema without affecting
the schema in next higher level (external schema.)
• Physical Data Independence – the ability to modify the physical schema without
changing the logical schema

STRUCTURE OF DBMS

● A database system is partitioned into modules that deal with each of the responsibilities
of the overall system.
● The functional components of a database system can be broadly divided into the storage
manager and the query processor components.
● The storage manager is important because databases typically require a large amount of
storage space.
● The query processor is important because it helps the database system to simplify and
facilitate access to data.
● It is the job of the database system to translate updates and queries written in a
nonprocedural language, at the logical level, into an efficient sequence of operations at
 the physical level.

1. Query Processor: 
It interprets the requests (queries) received from end user via an application program into
instructions. It also executes the user request which is received from the DML compiler. 

Query Processor contains the following components

● DML Compiler –
It processes the DML statements into low level instruction (machine language), so
that they can be executed. 
● DDL Interpreter – 
It processes the DDL statements into a set of table containing meta data (data
about data). 
● Embedded DML Pre-compiler – 
It processes DML statements embedded in an application program into procedural
calls. 
● Query Optimizer – 
It executes the instruction generated by DML Compiler. 
  
2. Storage Manager : 
● Storage Manager is a program that provides an interface between the data stored in the
database and the queries received.
● It is also known as Database Control System.

● It maintains the consistency and integrity of the database by applying the constraints and
executes the DCL statements.
● It is responsible for updating, storing, deleting, and retrieving data in the database. 

It contains the following components – 

 
● Authorization Manager – 
It ensures role-based access control, i.e,. checks whether the particular person is privileged to
perform the requested operation or not. 
 
● Integrity Manager – 
It checks the integrity constraints when the database is modified. 
 
● Transaction Manager – 
It controls concurrent access by performing the operations in a scheduled way that it receives
the transaction. Thus, it ensures that the database remains in the consistent state before and
after the execution of a transaction. 
 
● File Manager – 
It manages the file space and the data structure used to represent information in the database. 
 
● Buffer Manager – 
It is responsible for cache memory and the transfer of data between the secondary storage
and main memory. 
 
3. Disk Storage: 
It contains the following components – 
 
● Data Files – 
It stores the data. 
 
● Data Dictionary – 
It contains the information about the structure of any database object. It is the repository of
information that governs the metadata. 
 
● Indices – 
It provides faster retrieval of data items. 

Types of Database Users

1. Database Administrator (DBA):

DBA Stands for Database Administrator.

• It is a person or a team, who is responsible for managing the overall database

management system.

• It is the leader of the database. It is like a super-user of the system.

• It is responsible for the administration of all the three levels of the database.
DBA is responsible for:

• Deciding the instances for the database.

• Defining the Schema

• Liaising with Users

• Define Security

• Back-up and Recovery

• Monitoring the performance

2. Database Designers:
 • Database designers design the appropriate structure for the database, where we share
data.

3. System Analyst:
• System analyst analyses the requirements of end users, especially naïve and parametric
end users.

4. Application Programmers:
• Application programmers are computer professionals, who write application programs.

5. Naïve Users / Parametric Users:

• Naïve Users are Un-sophisticated users, which has no knowledge of the database. These
users are like a layman, which has a little bit of knowledge of the database.
• Naive Users are just to work on developed applications and get the desired result.
• For Example: Railway’s ticket booking users are naive users. Or Clerical staff in any
bank is a naïve user because they don’t have any DBMS knowledge but they still use the
database and perform their given task.

6. Sophisticated Users:
• Sophisticated users can be engineers, scientists, business analyst, who are familiar with
the database. These users interact with the database but they do not write programs

7. Casual Users / Temporary Users:

• These types of users communicate with the database for a little period of time.

Introduction to Database Design

The entity-relationship (ER) data model allows us to describe the data involved in a real-world
enterprise in terms of objects and their relationships and is widely used to develop an initial
database design.

It provides useful concepts that allow us to move front an informal description of what users
want from their database to a more detailed, precise description that can be implemented in a
DBMS.

DATABASE DESIGN AND ER DIAGRAMS

The database design process can be divided into six steps. The ER model is most relevant to the
first three steps.

1. Requirements Analysis: The very first step in designing a database application is to

understand what data is to be stored in the database, what applications must be built on top
of it, and what operations are most frequent and subject to performance requirements.
2. Conceptual Database Design: The information gathered in the requirements analysis step
is used to develop a high-level description of the data to be stored in the database, along
with the constraints known to hold over this data.
3. Logical Database Design: We must choose a DBMS to implement our database design,
and convert the conceptual database design into a database schema in the data model of the
chosen DBMS.

Beyond ER Design

4. Schema Refinement: The fourth step ill database design is to analyze the collection of
relations in our relational database schema to identify potential problems, and to refine it.
5. Physical Database Design: In this step, we consider typical expected workloads that our
database must support and further refine the database design to ensure that it meets desired
performance criteria.
6. Application and Security Design: Any software project that involves a DBMS must
consider aspects of the application that go beyond the database itself.

ENTITIES, ATTRIBUTES AND ENTITY SETS

In this database model, relationships are created by dividing object of interest into entity and its
characteristics into attributes.

Basic Concepts of ER Model in DBMS

As we described in the tutorial Database models, Entity-relationship model is a model used for
design and representation of relationships between data.
The main data objects are termed as Entities, with their details defined as attributes, some of
these attributes are important and are used to identify the entity, and different entities are related
using relationships.

● An entity is an object that exists and is distinguishable from other objects.

– Examples:
• Person: PROFESSOR, STUDENT
 • Place: STORE, UNIVERSITY
• Object: MACHINE, BUILDING
• Event: SALE, REGISTRATION

● An entity is represented with a RECTANGLE

● Entities have 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 all persons, companies, trees, holidays

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, name, street, city, salary )

• movie= (title, director, written by, duration, release date)

Attributes are represented with ELLIPSE

Use LINES to link attributes to entities

An attribute can be of many types, here are different types of attributes defined in ER database
model:

1. Simple attribute: The attributes with values that are atomic and cannot be broken down
further are simple attributes. For example, student's age.
2. Composite attribute: A composite attribute is made up of more than one simple attribute.
For example, student's address will contain, house no., street name, pin code etc.

3. Derived attribute: These are the attributes which are not present in the whole database
management system, but are derived using other attributes. For example, average age of
students in a class.

Example: age, and its value is derived from the stored attribute Date of Birth.

4. Single-valued attribute: As the name suggests, they have a single value.

Example1: City

Example2: Customer id

5. Multi-valued attribute: And, they can have multiple values.

● Example1: A customer can have multiple phone numbers, email id's etc

● Example2: A person may have several college degrees

EXAMPLE:

Relationship

• Named set of all similar relationships with the same attributes and relating to the same
entity types
• Relationship is represented with DIAMOND

teaches

• Relationships relate entities within the entity sets involved in the relationship type to each
other.

Example:

• – There is an “ownership‟ relation between cats and persons

But more modeling detail is needed

• Does every person own a cat? Does every cat have an owner?

• Can a cat have multiple owners or a person own multiple cats?

Since when does a person own some cat?

 • Who owns whom?

ER – Relationships

Person owns Cat

• Relationship Set: Collection of similar relationships.

• An attribute can also be property of a relationship set.

• For instance, the depositor relationship set between entity sets customer and account may
have the attribute access-date

Mapping Cardinality

Types of Relationships

• Three types of relationships can exist between entities

• One-to-one relationship (1:1): One instance in an entity (parent) refers to one and only
one instance in the related entity (child).
• One-to-many relationship (1:M): One instance in an entity (parent) refers to one or more
instances in the related entity (child)
 One to one One to many
Many-to-many relationship (M:N): exists when one instance of the first entity (parent) can
relate to many instances of the second entity (child), and one instance of the second entity
can relate to many instances of the first entity.

Many to many

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.

● Or, by numbering each entity.

● or, m for many.

ER Diagram: Relationship

A Relationship describes relation between entities. Relationship is represented using diamonds or

rhombus.

There are three types of relationship that exist between Entities.

1. Binary Relationship
2. Recursive Relationship
3. Ternary Relationship

ER Diagram: Binary Relationship

Binary Relationship means relation between two Entities. This is further divided into three types.
One to One Relationship
This type of relationship is rarely seen in real world.

The above example describes that one student can enroll only for one course and a course will
also have only one Student. This is not what you will usually see in real-world relationships.
One to Many Relationships
The below example showcases this relationship, which means that 1 student can opt for many
courses, but a course can only have 1 student. Sounds weird! This is how it is.
Many to One Relationship
It reflects business rule that many entities can be associated with just one entity. For example,
Student enrolls for only one Course but a Course can have many Students.

Many to Many Relationships

ER Diagram: Recursive Relationship

When an Entity is related with itself it is known as Recursive Relationship.

ER Diagram: Ternary Relationship

Relationship of degree three is called Ternary relationship.
A Ternary relationship involves three entities. In such relationships we always consider two
entities together and then look upon the third.
For example, in the diagram above, we have three related entities, Company, Product and Sector.
To understand the relationship better or to define rules around the model, we should relate two
entities and then derive the third one.
A Company produces many Products/ each product is produced by exactly one company.
A Company operates in only one Sector / each sector has many companies operating in it.
Considering the above two rules or relationships, we see that although the complete relationship
involves three entities, but we are looking at two entities at a time.

Integrity Constraints

Various types of integrity constraints are-

1. Domain Integrity
2. Entity Integrity Constraint
3. Referential Integrity Constraint
4. Key Constraints

1. Domain Integrity-

Domain integrity means the definition of a valid set of values for an attribute. You define data
type, length or size, is null value allowed, is the value unique or not for an attribute, the default
value, the range (values in between) and/or specific values for the attribute.

2. Entity Integrity Constraint-

This rule states that in any database relation value of attribute of a primary key can't be null.

Ex- Consider a relation "STUDENT" Where "Stu_id" is a primary key and it must not contain
any null value whereas other attributes may contain null value e.g "Branch" in the following
relation contains one null value.
 Stu_id Name Branch

11255234 Aman CSE

11255369 Kapil ECE

11255324 Ajay ME

11255237 Raman CSE

11255678 Aastha ECE

3. Referential Integrity Constraint-
It states that if a foreign key exists in a relation then either the foreign key value must match a
primary key value of some tuple in its home relation or the foreign key value must be null.
The rules are:

1. You can't delete a record from a primary table if matching records exist in a related table.
2. You can't change a primary key value in the primary table if that record has related
records.
3. You can't enter a value in the foreign key field of the related table that doesn't exist in the
primary key of the primary table.
4. However, you can enter a Null value in the foreign key, specifying that the records are
unrelated.

EXAMPLE-
Consider 2 relations "stu" and "stu_1" Where "Stu_id " is the primary key in the "stu" relation
and foreign key in the "stu_1" relation.
EXAMPLE-
Consider 2 relations "stu" and "stu_1" Where "Stu_id " is the primary key in the "stu" relation
and foreign key in the "stu_1" relation.

Relation "stu"

Stu_id Name Branch

11255234 Aman CSE

11255369 Kapil EcE

11255324 Ajay ME

11255237 Raman CSE

 11255678 Aastha ECE
Relation "stu_1"

Stu_id Course Duration

11255234 B TECH 4 years

11255369 B TECH 4 years

11255324 B TECH 4 years

11255237 B TECH 4 years

11255678 B TECH 4 years

Examples
Rule 1. You can't delete any of the rows in the”stu” relation that are visible since all the”stu” are
in use in the “stu_1” relation.
Rule 2. You can't change any of the”Stu_id” in the “stu” relation since all the “Stu_id” are in use
in the”stu_1” relation.
Rule 3. The values that you can enter in the” Stu_id” field in the “stu_1” relation must be in the”
Stu_id” field in the “stu” relation.
Rule 4. You can enter a null value in the "stu_1" relation if the records are unrelated.
4. Key Constraints-
A Key Constraint is a statement that a certain minimal subset of the fields of a relation is a
unique identifier for a tuple. The types of key constraints-

1. Primary key constraints

2. Unique key constraints
3. Foreign Key constraints
4. NOT NULL constraints
5. Check constraints

1. Primary key constraints

Primary key is the term used to identify one or more columns in a table that make a row of data
unique. Although the primary key typically consists of one column in a table, more than one
column can comprise the primary key.
For example, either the employee's Social Security number or an assigned employee
identification number is the logical primary key for an employee table. The objective is for every
record to have a unique primary key or value for the employee's identification number. Because
there is probably no need to have more than one record for each employee in an employee table,
the employee identification number makes a logical primary key. The primary key is assigned at
table creation.
The following example identifies the EMP_ID column as the PRIMARY KEY for the
EMPLOYEES table:

CREATE TABLE EMPLOYEE_TBL

(EMP_ID CHAR(9) NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY,
EMP_NAME VARCHAR (40) NOT NULL,
EMP_ST_ADDR VARCHAR (20) NOT NULL,
EMP_CITY VARCHAR (15) NOT NULL,
EMP_ST CHAR(2) NOT NULL,
EMP_ZIP INTEGER(5) NOT NULL,
EMP_PHONE INTEGER(10) NULL,
EMP_PAGER INTEGER(10) NULL);

2. Unique Constraints
A unique column constraint in a table is similar to a primary key in that the value in that column
for every row of data in the table must have a unique value. Although a primary key constraint is
placed on one column, you can place a unique constraint on another column even though it is not
actually for use as the primary key.

CREATE TABLE EMPLOYEE_TBL

(EMP_ID CHAR(9) NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY,
EMP_NAME VARCHAR (40) NOT NULL,
EMP_ST_ADDR VARCHAR (20) NOT NULL,
EMP_CITY VARCHAR (15) NOT NULL,
EMP_ST CHAR(2) NOT NULL,
EMP_ZIP INTEGER(5) NOT NULL,
EMP_PHONE INTEGER(10) NULL UNIQUE,
EMP_PAGER INTEGER(10) NULL)

3. Foreign Key Constraints

A foreign key is a column in a child table that references a primary key in the parent table. A
foreign key constraint is the main mechanism used to enforce referential integrity between tables
in a relational database. A column defined as a foreign key is used to reference a column defined
as a primary key in another table.
CREATE TABLE EMPLOYEE_PAY_TBL
(EMP_ID CHAR(9) NOT NULL,
POSITION VARCHAR2(15) NOT NULL,
DATE_HIRE DATE NULL,
PAY_RATE NUMBER(4,2) NOT NULL,
DATE_LAST_RAISE DATE NULL,

4. NOT NULL Constraints

Previous examples use the keywords NULL and NOT NULL listed on the same line as each
column and after the data type. NOT NULL is a constraint that you can place on a table's
column. This constraint disallows the entrance of NULL values into a column; in other words,
data is required in a NOT NULL column for each row of data in the table. NULL is generally the
default for a column if NOT NULL is not specified, allowing NULL values in a column.
5. Check Constraints
Check (CHK) constraints can be utilized to check the validity of data entered into particular table
columns. Check constraints are used to provide back-end database edits, although edits are
commonly found in the front-end application as well. General edits restrict values that can be
entered into columns or objects, whether within the database itself or on a front-end application.
The check constraint is a way of providing another protective layer for the data.

CREATE TABLE EMPLOYEE_TBL

(EMP_ID CHAR(9) NOT NULL,
EMP_NAME VARCHAR2(40) NOT NULL,
EMP_ST_ADDR VARCHAR2(20) NOT NULL,
EMP_CITY VARCHAR2(15) NOT NULL,
EMP_ST CHAR(2) NOT NULL,
EMP_ZIP NUMBER(5) NOT NULL,
EMP_PHONE NUMBER(10) NULL,
EMP_PAGER NUMBER(10) NULL),
PRIMARY KEY (EMP_ID),

CONSTRAINT CHK_EMP_ZIP CHECK ( EMP_ZIP = '46234');

Strong Entity and Weak entity

The Strong Entity is the one whose existence does not depend on the existence of any other
entity in a schema. It is denoted by a single rectangle. A strong entity always has the primary
key in the set of attributes that describes the strong entity. It indicates that each entity in a strong
entity set can be uniquely identified.

Set of similar types of strong entities together forms the Strong Entity Set. A strong entity holds
the relationship with the weak entity via an Identifying Relationship, which is denoted by
double diamond in the ER diagram. On the other hands, the relationship between two strong
entities is denoted by a single diamond and it is simply called as a relationship.

Let us understand this concept with the help of an example; a customer borrows a loan. Here we
have two entities first a customer entity, and second a loan entity.

A Weak entity is the one that depends on its owner entity i.e. a strong entity for its existence. A
weak entity is denoted by the double rectangle. Weak entities do not have the primary key
instead it has a partial key that uniquely denotes the weak entities. The primary key of a weak
entity is a composite key formed from the primary key of the strong entity and partial key of
the weak entity.

The collection of similar weak entities is called Weak Entity Set. The relationship between a
weak entity and a strong entity is always denoted with an Identifying Relationship i.e. double
diamond.

Total participation and Partial participation.

There are two types of participation constraints: Total and Partial

Total Participation
Total Participation is when each entity in the entity set occurs in at least one relationship
in that relationship set.
For instance, consider the relationship between customers and loans. A double line from
loan to borrower, as shown in figure below indicates that each loan must have at least one
associated customer.
 Partial Participation
Partial Participation is when each entity in the entity set may not occur in at least one
relationship in that relationship set. For instance, If a company policy states that
employee (manager) must manage a department, However every employee may not
manage a department, so the participation of EMPLOYEE in the MANAGES
relationship type is partial, meaning that some or part of the set of employee entities are
related to some department entity via MANAGES, but not necessarily all.
Note: Partial Participation is represented by single line connecting entities in relationship.
A relationship is an association between several entities.
A relationship set is a set of relationships of the same type.
Formally it is a mathematical relation on ( n>2) (possibly non-distinct) sets. If
(E1,E2,....En ) are entity sets,
then a relationship set R is a subset of {(e1,e2,.....en) | e1€ E1 , e2€ E2 ...... en€ En }
where (e1,e2,.....en) is a relationship.

ADDITIONAL FEATURES OF THE ER MODEL

ISA (`is a’) Hierarchies
● If we declare A ISA B, every A entity is also considered to be a B entity.
Reasons for using ISA:
● To add descriptive attributes specific to a subclass.

● To identify entities that participates in a relationship.

Aggregation
• Used when we have to model a relationship involving (entity sets and) a relationship set.
Aggregation allows us to treat a relationship set as an entity set for purposes of participation in
(other) relationships.

Aggregation vs. ternary relationship:

● Monitors are a distinct relationship, with a descriptive attribute.

● Also, I can say that each sponsorship is monitored by at most one employee.

● Consider the ternary relationship works_on, which we saw earlier

● Suppose we want to record managers for tasks performed by an employee at a branch

• Relationship sets works_on and manages represent overlapping information

– Every manages relationship corresponds to a works_on relationship
– However, some works_on relationships may not correspond to any manages
relationships
• So we can’t discard the works_on relationship
• Eliminate this redundancy via aggregation
– Treat relationship as an abstract entity
– Allows relationships between relationships

Abstraction of relationship into new entity

Conceptual Design Using the ER Model

Entity vs. Attribute

• Should address be an attribute of Employees or an entity (connected to Employees by a

relationship)?
• Depends upon the use we want to make of address information, and the semantics of the
data:
• If we have several addresses per employee, address must be an entity (since
attributes cannot be set-valued).
• If the structure (city, street, etc.) is important, e.g., we want to retrieve employees
in a given city, address must be modeled as an entity (since attribute values are
atomic).

• Works_In4 does not allow an employee to work in a department for two or more periods.
• Similar to the problem of wanting to record several addresses for an employee:
We want to record several values of the descriptive attributes for each
instance of this relationship. Accomplished by introducing new entity set, Duration.
•

Entity vs. Relationship

• First ER diagram OK if a manager gets a separate discretionary budget for each dept.

• What if a manager gets a discretionary budget that covers all managed depts?

– Redundancy: dbudget stored for each dept managed by manager

– Misleading: Suggests dbudget associated with department- mgr combination.

Binary vs. Ternary Relationships

• If each policy is owned by just 1 employee, and each dependent is tied to the covering
policy, first diagram is inaccurate.

• What are the additional constraints in the2nd diagram?

• Previous example illustrated a case when two binary relationships were better than one
ternary relationship.

• An example in the other direction: a ternary relation Contracts relates entity sets Parts,
Departments and Suppliers, and has descriptive attribute qty.

– S “can-supply” P, D“needs” P, and D“deals- with” S does not imply that D has
agreed to buy P from S.

How do we record qty?

Aggregation v/s ternary relationship

• The choice between using aggregation or ternary relationship is mainly determined by

existence of a relationship that relates relationship set to entity set.

• The choice may also be guided by certain integrity constraints that we want to express.
Aggregation v/s ternary relationship

Using ternary relationship instead of aggregation

CONCEPTUAL DESIGN FOR LARGE ENTERPRISES

● We have thus far concentrated on the constructs available in the ER model for describing
various application concepts and relationships.
● The process of conceptual design consists of more than just describing small fragments of
the application in terms of ER diagrams.
● For a large enterprise, the design may require the efforts of more than one designer and
span data and application code used by a number of user groups.
 ● Using a high-level, semantic data model, such as ER diagrams, for conceptual design in
such an environment offers the additional advantage that the high-level design can be
diagrammatically represented and easily understood by the many people who must
provide input to the design process.
● An important aspect of the design process is the methodology used to structure the
development of the overall design and ensure that the design takes into account all user
requirements and is consistent.
● The usual approach is that the requirements of various user groups are considered, any
conflicting requirements are somehow resolved, and a single set of global requirements is
generated at the end of the requirements analysis phase.
● Generating a single set of global requirements is a difficult task, but it allows the
conceptual design phase to proceed with the development of a logical schema that spans
all the data and applications throughout the enterprise.
● An alternative approach is to develop separate conceptual schema.'-l for different user
groups and then integrate these conceptual schemas.
● To integrate multiple conceptual schemas, we must establish correspondences between
entities, relationships, and attributes, and we must resolve numerous kinds of conflicts
(e.g., naming conflicts, domain mismatches, and differences in measurement units).
● This task is difficult in its own right.

● In some situations, schema integration cannot be avoided; for example, when one
organization merges with another, existing databases may have to be integrated.
● Schema integration is also increasing in importance as users demand access to
heterogeneous data sources, often maintained by different organizations.

SQL commands
SQL commands are divided into four subgroups, DDL, DML, DCL, and TCL.

DDL

DDL is short name of Data Definition Language, which deals with database schemas and
descriptions, of how the data should reside in the database.

● CREATE - to create a database and its objects like (table, index, views, store procedure,
function, and triggers)

● ALTER - alters the structure of the existing database

● DROP - delete objects from the database

● TRUNCATE - remove all records from a table, including all spaces allocated for the
records are removed
 ● COMMENT - add comments to the data dictionary

● RENAME - rename an object

DML:

DML is short name of Data Manipulation Language which deals with data manipulation and
includes most common SQL statements such SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, etc., and
it is used to store, modify, retrieve, delete and update data in a database.

● SELECT - retrieve data from a database

● INSERT - insert data into a table

● UPDATE - updates existing data within a table

● DELETE - Delete all records from a database table

● MERGE - UPSERT operation (insert or update)

● CALL - call a PL/SQL or Java subprogram

● EXPLAIN PLAN - interpretation of the data access path

● LOCK TABLE - concurrency Control

DCL:

DCL is short name of Data Control Language which includes commands such as GRANT and
mostly concerned with rights, permissions and other controls of the database system.

● GRANT - allow users access privileges to the database

● REVOKE - withdraw users access privileges given by using the GRANT command

TCL:
TCL is short name of Transaction Control Language which deals with a transaction within a
database.

● COMMIT - commits a Transaction

● ROLLBACK - rollback a transaction in case of any error occurs

● SAVEPOINT - to rollback the transaction making points within groups

● SET TRANSACTION - specify characteristics of the transaction