Chapter 3
Chapter 3
Chapter 3
Outline
The high-level conceptual model
Entity types and Sets, Attributes and Keys
Relationships, Associations, Roles and Structural
Constraints
E/R Diagram naming conventions, and Design
issues
Mapping ER-models to relational tables
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High level conceptual modeling
The first step shown is requirements collection and
analysis. During this step, the database designers interview
prospective database users to understand and document
their data requirements. The result of this step is a
concisely written set of users’ requirements.
These requirements should be specified in as detailed and
complete a form as possible. In parallel with specifying the
data requirements, it is useful to specify the known
functional requirements of the application. These consist of
the user-defined operations (or transactions) that will be
applied to the database, including both retrievals and
updates. In software design, it is common to use data flow
diagrams, sequence diagrams, scenarios, and other
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techniques to specify functional requirements.
Once the requirements have been collected and analyzed, the next step is to create a
conceptual schema for the database, using a high-level conceptual data model.
This step is called conceptual design. The conceptual schema is a concise description of
the data requirements of the users and includes detailed descriptions of the entity types,
relationships, and constraints; these are expressed using the concepts pro-vided by the
During or after the conceptual schema design, the basic data model operations can be
used to specify the high-level user queries and operations identified during functional
analysis.
This also serves to confirm that the conceptual schema meets all the identified functional
requirements.
The next step in database design is the actual implementation of the database, using a
commercial DBMS.
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Most current commercial DBMSs use an implementation data model
such as the relational or the object-relational database model so the
conceptual schema is transformed from the high-level data model into
the implementation data model.
This step is called logical design or data model mapping; its result
is a database schema in the implementation data model of the DBMS.
Data model mapping is often automated or semi automated within
the database design tools.
The last step is the physical design phase, during which the internal
storage structures, file organizations, indexes, access paths, and
physical design parameters for the database files are specified.
In parallel with these activities, application programs are designed
and implemented as database transactions corresponding to the high-
level transaction specifications.
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Entity Set or Entity Type-Collection of entities all having the same properties.
Attributes Each entity is described by a set of attributes/properties.
Types of Attributes
Simple Attributes having atomic or indivisible values.
example: Dep't – a string
Composite Attributes : having several components in the value.
example: Qualification with components
(Degree Name, Year, University Name)
Derived Attributes: Attribute value is dependent on some other attribute.
Single-valued : having only one value rather than a set of values.
for instance, PlaceOfBirth – single string value.
Multi-valued : having a set of values rather than a single value.
for instance, CoursesEnrolled attribute for student
Student major