MIT ART DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY UNIVERSITY

MIT College of Management (MITCOM), Pune

PROGRAMME: BCA

COURSE – BCA - SEM III

Second Year Semester III

Introduction for DBMS using SQL

Complied by Dr Ashwin Tomar

MCA, Ph.D[Computer Science], MBA[IT]
drtomarashwin@gmail.com, ashwin.tomar@mituniversity.edu.in

1
 UNIT 3 DBMS

Model 3. (5 Hrs) Entity-Relationship model:

Basic concepts, Design process, constraints, Keys, Design issues,
E-R diagrams, weak entity sets, extended E-R features – generalization,
specialization, aggregation, reduction to E-R database schema

3.1 Entities 3.2 Relationships

o ER model stands for an Entity-Relationship model. It is a high-level data model. This

model is used to define the data elements and relationship for a specified system.
o It develops a conceptual design for the database. It also develops a very simple and easy
to design view of data.
o In ER modeling, the database structure is portrayed as a diagram called an entity-
relationship diagram.

For example, Suppose we design a school database. In this database, the student will be an
entity with attributes like address, name, id, age, etc. The address can be another entity with
attributes like city, street name, pin code, etc and there will be a relationship between them.

Component of ER Diagram

2
1. Entity:

An entity may be any object, class, person or place. In the ER diagram, an entity can be
represented as rectangles.

Consider an organization as an example- manager, product, employee, department etc. can be

taken as an entity.

a. Weak Entity

An entity that depends on another entity called a weak entity. The weak entity doesn't contain
any key attribute of its own. The weak entity is represented by a double rectangle.

3
2. Attribute

The attribute is used to describe the property of an entity. Eclipse is used to represent an
attribute.

For example, id, age, contact number, name, etc. can be attributes of a student.

a. Key Attribute

The key attribute is used to represent the main characteristics of an entity. It represents a primary
key. The key attribute is represented by an ellipse with the text underlined.

b. Composite Attribute

An attribute that composed of many other attributes is known as a composite attribute. The
composite attribute is represented by an ellipse, and those ellipses are connected with an ellipse.

4
c. Multivalued Attribute

An attribute can have more than one value. These attributes are known as a multivalued attribute.
The double oval is used to represent multivalued attribute.

For example, a student can have more than one phone number.

d. Derived Attribute

An attribute that can be derived from other attribute is known as a derived attribute. It can be
represented by a dashed ellipse.

For example, A person's age changes over time and can be derived from another attribute like
Date of birth.

5
3. Relationship

A relationship is used to describe the relation between entities. Diamond or rhombus is used to
represent the relationship.

Types of relationship are as follows:

a. One-to-One Relationship

When only one instance of an entity is associated with the relationship, then it is known as one to
one relationship.

For example, A female can marry to one male, and a male can marry to one female.

b. One-to-many relationship

When only one instance of the entity on the left, and more than one instance of an entity on the
right associates with the relationship then this is known as a one-to-many relationship.

6
For example, Scientist can invent many inventions, but the invention is done by the only
specific scientist.

c. Many-to-one relationship

When more than one instance of the entity on the left, and only one instance of an entity on the
right associates with the relationship then it is known as a many-to-one relationship.

For example, Student enrolls for only one course, but a course can have many students.

d. Many-to-many relationship

When more than one instance of the entity on the left, and more than one instance of an entity on
the right associates with the relationship then it is known as a many-to-many relationship.

For example, Employee can assign by many projects and project can have many employees.

7
Notation of ER diagram
Database can be represented using the notations. In ER diagram, many notations are used to
express the cardinality. These notations are as follows:

Fig: Notations of ER diagram

8
3.3 Representation of entities, attributes, relationship attributes, relationship set

Mapping Constraints

o A mapping constraint is a data constraint that expresses the number of entities to which
another entity can be related via a relationship set.
o It is most useful in describing the relationship sets that involve more than two entity sets.
o For binary relationship set R on an entity set A and B, there are four possible mapping
cardinalities. These are as follows:
1. One to one (1:1)
2. One to many (1:M)
3. Many to one (M:1)
4. Many to many (M:M)

One-to-one

In one-to-one mapping, an entity in E1 is associated with at most one entity in E2, and an entity
in E2 is associated with at most one entity in E1.

One-to-many

In one-to-many mapping, an entity in E1 is associated with any number of entities in E2, and an
entity in E2 is associated with at most one entity in E1.

9
Many-to-one

In one-to-many mapping, an entity in E1 is associated with at most one entity in E2, and an
entity in E2 is associated with any number of entities in E1.

Many-to-many

In many-to-many mapping, an entity in E1 is associated with any number of entities in E2, and
an entity in E2 is associated with any number of entities in E1.

3.4 Generalization, aggregation

Generalization
o Generalization is like a bottom-up approach in which two or more entities of lower level
combine to form a higher level entity if they have some attributes in common.
o In generalization, an entity of a higher level can also combine with the entities of the
lower level to form a further higher level entity.
o Generalization is more like subclass and superclass system, but the only difference is the
approach. Generalization uses the bottom-up approach.
o In generalization, entities are combined to form a more generalized entity, i.e., subclasses
are combined to make a superclass.

For example, Faculty and Student entities can be generalized and create a higher level entity
Person.

10
Specialization
o Specialization is a top-down approach, and it is opposite to Generalization. In
specialization, one higher level entity can be broken down into two lower level entities.
o Specialization is used to identify the subset of an entity set that shares some
distinguishing characteristics.
o Normally, the superclass is defined first, the subclass and its related attributes are defined
next, and relationship set are then added.

For example: In an Employee management system, EMPLOYEE entity can be specialized as

TESTER or DEVELOPER based on what role they play in the company.

Aggregation

In aggregation, the relation between two entities is treated as a single entity. In aggregation,
relationship with its corresponding entities is aggregated into a higher level entity.

For example: Center entity offers the Course entity act as a single entity in the relationship
which is in a relationship with another entity visitor. In the real world, if a visitor visits a
coaching center then he will never enquiry about the Course only or just about the Center instead
he will ask the enquiry about both.

11
3.4 Structure of relational Database and different types of keys

Reduction of ER diagram to Table

The database can be represented using the notations, and these notations can be reduced to a collection of tables.

In the database, every entity set or relationship set can be represented in tabular form.

The ER diagram is given below:

12
There are some points for converting the ER diagram to the table:

o Entity type becomes a table.

In the given ER diagram, LECTURE, STUDENT, SUBJECT and COURSE forms individual
tables.

o All single-valued attribute becomes a column for the table.

In the STUDENT entity, STUDENT_NAME and STUDENT_ID form the column of STUDENT
table. Similarly, COURSE_NAME and COURSE_ID form the column of COURSE table and so
on.

o A key attribute of the entity type represented by the primary key.

In the given ER diagram, COURSE_ID, STUDENT_ID, SUBJECT_ID, and LECTURE_ID are

the key attribute of the entity.

o The multivalued attribute is represented by a separate table.

In the student table, a hobby is a multivalued attribute. So it is not possible to represent multiple
values in a single column of STUDENT table. Hence we create a table STUD_HOBBY with
column name STUDENT_ID and HOBBY. Using both the column, we create a composite key.

o Composite attribute represented by components.

In the given ER diagram, student address is a composite attribute. It contains CITY, PIN,
DOOR#, STREET, and STATE. In the STUDENT table, these attributes can merge as an
individual column.

o Derived attributes are not considered in the table.

In the STUDENT table, Age is the derived attribute. It can be calculated at any point of time by
calculating the difference between current date and Date of Birth.

Using these rules, you can convert the ER diagram to tables and columns and assign the mapping
between the tables. Table structure for the given ER diagram is as below:

Relationship of higher degree

The degree of relationship can be defined as the number of occurrences in one entity that is
associated with the number of occurrences in another entity.

There is the three degree of relationship:

13
 1. One-to-one (1:1)
2. One-to-many (1:M)
3. Many-to-many (M:N)

1. One-to-one

o In a one-to-one relationship, one occurrence of an entity relates to only one occurrence in

another entity.
o A one-to-one relationship rarely exists in practice.
o For example: if an employee is allocated a company car then that car can only be driven
by that employee.
o Therefore, employee and company car have a one-to-one relationship.

2. One-to-many

o In a one-to-many relationship, one occurrence in an entity relates to many occurrences in

another entity.
o For example: An employee works in one department, but a department has many
employees.
o Therefore, department and employee have a one-to-many relationship.

3. Many-to-many

o In a many-to-many relationship, many occurrences in an entity relate to many

occurrences in another entity.
o Same as a one-to-one relationship, the many-to-many relationship rarely exists in
practice.
o For example: At the same time, an employee can work on several projects, and a project
has a team of many employees.
o Therefore, employee and project have a many-to-many relationship.

14
Keys

o Keys play an important role in the relational database.

o It is used to uniquely identify any record or row of data from the table. It is also used to
establish and identify relationships between tables.

For example, ID is used as a key in the Student table because it is unique for each student. In the
PERSON table, passport_number, license_number, SSN are keys since they are unique for each
person.

15
1. Primary key

o It is the first key used to identify one and only one instance of an entity uniquely. An
entity can contain multiple keys, as we saw in the PERSON table. The key which is most
suitable from those lists becomes a primary key.
o In the EMPLOYEE table, ID can be the primary key since it is unique for each employee.
In the EMPLOYEE table, we can even select License_Number and Passport_Number as
primary keys since they are also unique.
o For each entity, the primary key selection is based on requirements and developers.

2. Candidate key

o A candidate key is an attribute or set of attributes that can uniquely identify a tuple.
o Except for the primary key, the remaining attributes are considered a candidate key. The
candidate keys are as strong as the primary key.

For example: In the EMPLOYEE table, id is best suited for the primary key. The rest of the
attributes, like SSN, Passport_Number, License_Number, etc., are considered a candidate key.

16
3. Super Key

Super key is an attribute set that can uniquely identify a tuple. A super key is a superset of a
candidate key.

For example: In the above EMPLOYEE table, for(EMPLOEE_ID, EMPLOYEE_NAME), the

name of two employees can be the same, but their EMPLYEE_ID can't be the same. Hence, this
combination can also be a key.

The super key would be EMPLOYEE-ID (EMPLOYEE_ID, EMPLOYEE-NAME), etc.

4. Foreign key

o Foreign keys are the column of the table used to point to the primary key of another table.
o Every employee works in a specific department in a company, and employee and
department are two different entities. So we can't store the department's information in
the employee table. That's why we link these two tables through the primary key of one
table.
o We add the primary key of the DEPARTMENT table, Department_Id, as a new attribute
in the EMPLOYEE table.
o In the EMPLOYEE table, Department_Id is the foreign key, and both the tables are
related.

17
5. Alternate key

There may be one or more attributes or a combination of attributes that uniquely identify each
tuple in a relation. These attributes or combinations of the attributes are called the candidate
keys. One key is chosen as the primary key from these candidate keys, and the remaining
candidate key, if it exists, is termed the alternate key. In other words, the total number of the
alternate keys is the total number of candidate keys minus the primary key. The alternate key
may or may not exist. If there is only one candidate key in a relation, it does not have an alternate
key.

For example, employee relation has two attributes, Employee_Id and PAN_No, that act as
candidate keys. In this relation, Employee_Id is chosen as the primary key, so the other candidate
key, PAN_No, acts as the Alternate key.

6. Composite key

Whenever a primary key consists of more than one attribute, it is known as a composite key.
This key is also known as Concatenated Key.

18
For example, in employee relations, we assume that an employee may be assigned multiple
roles, and an employee may work on multiple projects simultaneously. So the primary key will
be composed of all three attributes, namely Emp_ID, Emp_role, and Proj_ID in combination. So
these attributes act as a composite key since the primary key comprises more than one attribute.

Composite key

Super key

Candidate key

Primary key

19