Logical Database Design

and the Relational Model

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 Relation
 Definition: A relation is a named, two-dimensional table of data
– Table is made up of rows (records), and columns (attribute or field)
 Not all tables qualify as relations
 Requirements:
– Every relation has a unique name.
– Every attribute value is atomic (not multivalued, not composite)
– Every row is unique (can’t have two rows with exactly the same values for all
their fields)
– Attributes (columns) in tables have unique names
– The order of the columns is irrelevant
– The order of the rows is irrelevant

NOTE: all relations are in 1st Normal form

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 Correspondence with ER
Model
 Relations (tables) correspond with entity types and with
many-to-many relationship types
 Rows correspond with entity instances and with many-
to-many relationship instances
 Columns correspond with attributes

 NOTE: The word relation (in relational database) is

NOT the same same the word relationship (in ER
model)
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 Key Fields
 Keys are special fields that serve two main purposes:
– Primary keys are unique identifiers of the relation in question.
Examples include employee numbers, social security numbers,
etc. This is how we can guarantee that all rows are unique
– Foreign keys are identifiers that enable a dependent relation (on
the many side of a relationship) to refer to its parent relation (on
the one side of the relationship)
 Keys can be simple (a single field) or composite (more
than one field)
 Keys usually are used as indexes to speed up the
response to user queries (More on this in Ch. 6)

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Figure 5-3 -- Schema for four relations (Pine Valley Furniture)

Primary Key
Foreign Key
(implements 1:N relationship
between customer and order)
Combined, these are a composite
primary key (uniquely identifies the
order line)…individually they are
foreign keys (implement M:N
relationship between order and
product)

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 Integrity Constraints
 Domain Constraints
– Allowable values for an attribute. See Table 5-1
 Entity Integrity
– No primary key attribute may be null. All primary
key fields MUST have data
 Action Assertions
– Business rules. Recall from Ch. 4

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 Integrity Constraints
 Referential Integrity – rule that states that any foreign key value (on
the relation of the many side) MUST match a primary key value in the
relation of the one side. (Or the foreign key can be null)
– For example: Delete Rules
 Restrict – don’t allow delete of “parent” side if related rows exist in
“dependent” side
 Cascade – automatically delete “dependent” side rows that correspond with
the “parent” side row to be deleted
 Set-to-Null – set the foreign key in the dependent side to null if deleting
from the parent side  not allowed for weak entities

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Figure 5-5:
Referential integrity constraints (Pine Valley Furniture)

Referential
integrity
constraints are
drawn via arrows
from dependent to
parent table

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 Transforming EER Diagrams
into Relations
Mapping Regular Entities to Relations
1. Simple attributes: E-R attributes map directly
onto the relation
2. Composite attributes: Use only their simple,
component attributes
3. Multi-valued Attribute - Becomes a separate
relation with a foreign key taken from the
superior entity

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 Figure 5-8: Mapping a regular entity

(a) CUSTOMER
entity type with
simple
attributes

(b) CUSTOMER relation

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 Figure 5-9: Mapping a composite attribute

(a) CUSTOMER
entity type with
composite
attribute

(b) CUSTOMER relation with address detail

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 Figure 5-10: Mapping a multivalued attribute
(a)

Multivalued attribute becomes a separate relation with foreign key

(b)

1 – to – many relationship between original entity and new relation

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 Transforming EER Diagrams
into Relations
Mapping Weak Entities
– Becomes a separate relation with a
foreign key taken from the superior entity
– Primary key composed of:
 Partial identifier of weak entity
 Primary key of identifying relation (strong

entity)

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Figure 5-11: Example of mapping a weak entity

(a) Weak entity DEPENDENT

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Figure 5-11(b) Relations resulting from weak entity

NOTE: the domain

constraint for the foreign key
should NOT allow null value
if DEPENDENT is a weak
entity

Foreign key

Composite primary key

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 Transforming EER Diagrams
into Relations
Mapping Binary Relationships
– One-to-Many - Primary key on the one side
becomes a foreign key on the many side
– Many-to-Many - Create a new relation with the
primary keys of the two entities as its primary
key
– One-to-One - Primary key on the mandatory
side becomes a foreign key on the optional side

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Figure 5-12: Example of mapping a 1:M relationship

(a) Relationship between customers and orders

Note the mandatory one

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Figure 5-12(b) Mapping the relationship

Again, no null value in the

foreign key…this is because
of the mandatory minimum
cardinality

Foreign key

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 Figure 5-13: Example of mapping an M:N relationship
(a) ER diagram (M:N)

The Supplies relationship will need to become a separate relation

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 Figure 5-13(b) Three resulting relations

Composite primary key

New
Foreign key intersection
relation
Foreign key

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Figure 5-14: Mapping a binary 1:1 relationship

(a) Binary 1:1 relationship

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Figure 5-14(b) Resulting relations

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 Transforming EER Diagrams
into Relations
Mapping Associative Entities
– Identifier Not Assigned
 Default primary key for the association

relation is composed of the primary keys of

the two entities (as in M:N relationship)
– Identifier Assigned
 It is natural and familiar to end-users

 Default identifier may not be unique

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Figure 5-15: Mapping an associative entity
(a) Associative entity

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Figure 5-15(b) Three resulting relations

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 Transforming EER Diagrams
into Relations
Mapping Unary Relationships
– One-to-Many - Recursive foreign key in the
same relation
– Many-to-Many - Two relations:
 One for the entity type

 One for an associative relation in which the

primary key has two attributes, both taken

from the primary key of the entity
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 Figure 5-17: Mapping a unary 1:N relationship

(a) EMPLOYEE entity with

Manages relationship

(b) EMPLOYEE
relation with
recursive foreign
key

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Figure 5-18: Mapping a unary M:N relationship

(a) Bill-of-materials
relationships (M:N)

(b) ITEM and

COMPONENT
relations

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 Transforming EER Diagrams
into Relations
Mapping Ternary (and n-ary)
Relationships
– One relation for each entity and one
for the associative entity
– Associative entity has foreign keys
to each entity in the relationship

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 Figure 5-19: Mapping a ternary relationship
(a) Ternary relationship with associative entity

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Figure 5-19(b) Mapping the ternary relationship

Remember that the

primary key MUST be
unique

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 Transforming EER Diagrams
into Relations
Mapping Supertype/Subtype Relationships
– One relation for supertype and for each subtype
– Supertype attributes (including identifier and
subtype discriminator) go into supertype relation
– Subtype attributes go into each subtype; primary
key of supertype relation also becomes primary
key of subtype relation
– 1:1 relationship established between supertype and
each subtype, with supertype as primary table

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Figure 5-20: Supertype/subtype relationships

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Figure 5-21:
Mapping Supertype/subtype relationships to relations

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 Data Normalization
 Primarily a tool to validate and improve a
logical design so that it satisfies certain
constraints that avoid unnecessary
duplication of data
 The process of decomposing relations with
anomalies to produce smaller, well-
structured relations
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 Well-Structured Relations
 A relation that contains minimal data redundancy
and allows users to insert, delete, and update rows
without causing data inconsistencies
 Goal is to avoid anomalies
– Insertion Anomaly – adding new rows forces user to
create duplicate data
– Deletion Anomaly – deleting rows may cause a loss of
data that would be needed for other future rows
– Modification Anomaly – changing data in a row forces
changes to other rows because of duplication

General rule of thumb: a table should not pertain to

more than one entity type
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 Example – Figure 5.2b

Question – Is this a relation? Answer – Yes: unique rows and no multivalued

attributes

Question – What’s the primary key? Answer – Composite: Emp_ID,

Course_Title

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 Anomalies in this Table
 Insertion – can’t enter a new employee without
having the employee take a class
 Deletion – if we remove employee 140, we lose
information about the existence of a Tax Acc class
 Modification – giving a salary increase to
employee 100 forces us to update multiple records
Why do these anomalies exist?
Because we’ve combined two themes (entity types)
into one relation. This results in duplication, and an
unnecessary dependency between the entities
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 Functional Dependencies and Keys
 Functional Dependency: The value of one
attribute (the determinant) determines the
value of another attribute
 Candidate Key:
– A unique identifier. One of the candidate keys will
become the primary key
 E.g. perhaps there is both credit card number and SS# in
a table…in this case both are candidate keys
– Each non-key field is functionally dependent on
every candidate key

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5.22 -Steps in
normalization

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 First Normal Form
 No multivalued attributes
 Every attribute value is atomic
 Fig. 5-2a is not in 1st Normal Form
(multivalued attributes)  it is not a relation
 Fig. 5-2b is in 1st Normal form
 All relations are in 1st Normal Form

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 Second Normal Form
 1NF plus every non-key attribute is fully
functionally dependent on the ENTIRE
primary key
– Every non-key attribute must be defined by the
entire key, not by only part of the key
– No partial functional dependencies
 Fig.5-2b is NOT in 2nd Normal Form (see fig
5-23b)

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 Fig 5.23(b) – Functional
Dependencies in EMPLOYEE2
Dependency on entire primary key

EmpID CourseTitle Name DeptName Salary DateCompleted

Dependency on only part of the key

EmpID, CourseTitle  DateCompleted

EmpID  Name, DeptName, Salary

Therefore, NOT in 2nd Normal Form!!

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 Getting it into 2nd Normal Form
 See p193 – decomposed into two separate relations

Both are full

functional
EmpID Name DeptName Salary
dependencies

EmpID CourseTitle DateCompleted

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 Third Normal Form
 2NF PLUS no transitive dependencies
(one attribute functionally determines a
second, which functionally determines a
third)
 Fig. 5-24, 5-25

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Figure 5-24 -- Relation with transitive dependency
(a) SALES relation with simple data

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 Figure 5-24(b) Relation with transitive dependency

CustID  Name
CustID  Salesperson BUT
CustID  Region
CustID  Salesperson  Region
All this is OK Transitive dependency
(2nd NF) (not 3rd NF)
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Figure 5.25 -- Removing a transitive dependency
(a) Decomposing the SALES relation

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 Figure 5.25(b) Relations in 3NF

Salesperson  Region

CustID  Name
CustID  Salesperson

Now, there are no transitive dependencies…

Both relations are in 3rd NF
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 Other Normal Forms
(from Appendix B)
 Boyce-Codd NF
– All determinants are candidate keys…there is no determinant
that is not a unique identifier
 4th NF
– No multivalued dependencies
 5th NF
– No “lossless joins”
 Domain-key NF
– The “ultimate” NF…perfect elimination of all possible
anomalies

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