Introduction of Entity Relationship Model

This model represents the logical structure of a database, including

entities, their attributes and relationships between them.
➔​Entity: An object that is stored as data such as Student, Course
or Company.
➔​Attribute: Properties that describe an entity such as
StudentID, CourseName, or EmployeeEmail.
➔​Relationship: A connection between entities such as "a
Student enrolls in a Course".

Symbols Used in ER Model

ER Model is used to model the logical view of the system from a data
perspective which consists of these symbols:
➔​Rectangles: Rectangles represent entities in the ER Model.
➔​Ellipses: Ellipses represent attributes in the ER Model.
➔​Diamond: Diamonds represent relationships among Entities.
➔​Lines: Lines represent attributes to entities and entity sets
with other relationship types.
➔​Double Ellipse: Double ellipses represent multi-valued
Attributes, such as a student's multiple phone numbers
➔​Double Rectangle: Represents weak entities, which depend on
other entities for identification.
What is an Entity?
➔​An Entity represents a real-world object, concept or thing about
which data is stored in a database.
➔​It acts as a building block of a database.
➔​Tables in relational databases represent these entities.
Example of entities:
➔​Real-World Objects: Person, Car, Employee etc.
➔​Concepts: Course, Event, Reservation etc.
➔​Things: Product, Document, Device etc.

What is an Entity Set?

An entity refers to an individual object of an entity type, and the
collection of all entities of a particular type is called an entity set.
●​ For example, E1 is an entity that belongs to the entity type
"Student," and the group of all students forms the entity set.
In the ER diagram below, the entity type is represented as:
Types of Entity

There are two main types of entities:

1. Strong Entity

➔​A Strong Entity is a type of entity that has a key Attribute that
can uniquely identify each instance of the entity.
➔​A Strong Entity does not depend on any other Entity in the
Schema for its identification.
➔​It has a primary key that ensures its uniqueness and is
represented by a rectangle in an ER diagram.

2. Weak Entity

➔​A Weak Entity cannot be uniquely identified by its own

attributes alone.
➔​It depends on a strong entity to be identified.
➔​A weak entity is associated with an identifying entity (strong
entity), which helps in its identification.
➔​A weak entity is represented by a double rectangle.
➔​The participation of weak entity types is always total.
 ➔​The relationship between the weak entity type and its
identifying strong entity type is called identifying relationship
and it is represented by a double diamond.
Example:
➔​A company may store the information of dependents (Parents,
Children, Spouse) of an Employee.
➔​But the dependents can't exist without the employee.
➔​So dependent will be a Weak Entity Type and Employee will be
identifying entity type for dependent, which means it is Strong
Entity Type.

Strong Entity and Weak Entity

Attributes in ER Model

➔​Attributes are the properties that define the entity type.

◆​For example, for a Student entity
●​ Roll_No, Name, DOB, Age, Address, and Mobile_No
are the attributes that define entity type Student.
In the ER diagram, the attribute is represented by an oval.
Types of Attributes

1. Key Attribute

The attribute which uniquely identifies each entity in the entity set is
called the key attribute.
➔​For example,
◆​Roll_No will be unique for each student.
In the ER diagram, the key attribute is represented by an oval with an
underline.

Key Attribute

2. Composite Attribute

➔​An attribute composed of many other attributes is called a

composite attribute.
◆​For example, the Address attribute of the student Entity
type consists of Street, City, State, and Country.
●​ In the ER diagram, the composite attribute is
represented by an oval consisting of ovals.
Composite Attribute

3. Multivalued Attribute

➔​An attribute consisting of more than one value for a given entity.
◆​For example,
●​ Phone_No (can be more than one for a given student).
○​ In the ER diagram, a multivalued attribute is
represented by a double oval.

Multivalued Attribute

4. Derived Attribute

➔​An attribute that can be derived from other attributes of the

entity type is known as a derived attribute.
◆​e.g.; Age (can be derived from DOB). In the ER diagram, the
derived attribute is represented by a dashed oval.

Derived Attribute
The Complete Entity Type Student with its Attributes can be

represented as:

Entity and Attributes

Relationship Type and Relationship Set

➔​A Relationship Type represents the association between entity
types.
◆​For example, ‘Enrolled in’ is a relationship type that exists
between entity type Student and Course.
◆​In the ER diagram, the relationship type is represented by a
diamond and connects the entities with lines.

Entity-Relationship Set
A set of relationships of the same type is known as a relationship set.
The following relationship set depicts S1 as enrolled in C2, S2 as
enrolled in C1, and S3 as registered in C3.

Relationship Set

Degree of a Relationship Set

➔​The number of different entity sets participating in a
relationship set is called the degree of a relationship set.
1. Unary Relationship:
➔​When there is only ONE entity set participating in a relation, the
relationship is called a unary relationship.
◆​For example, one person is married to only one person.

Unary Relationship
2. Binary Relationship:
➔​When there are TWO entities participating in a relationship, the
relationship is called a binary relationship.
◆​For example, a Student is enrolled in a Course.

Binary Relationship

3. Ternary Relationship:
➔​When there are three entity sets participating in a relationship,
the relationship is called a ternary relationship.
4. N-ary Relationship:
➔​When there are n entities set participating in a relationship, the
relationship is called an n-ary relationship.

Cardinality in ER Model

➔​The maximum number of times an entity of an entity set

participates in a relationship set is known as cardinality.
◆​Cardinality can be of different types:

1. One-to-One

➔​When each entity in each entity set can take part only once in
the relationship, the cardinality is one-to-one.
◆​Let us assume that a male can marry one female and a
female can marry one male. So the relationship will be
one-to-one.
One to One Cardinality

Using Sets, it can be represented as:

Set Representation of One-to-One

2. One-to-Many

➔​In one-to-many mapping as well where each entity can be

related to more than one entity.
◆​Let us assume that one surgeon department can
accommodate many doctors.
●​ So the Cardinality will be 1 to M.
○​ It means one department has many Doctors.
one to many cardinality

Using sets, one-to-many cardinality can be represented as:

3. Many-to-One

➔​When entities in one entity set can take part only once in the
relationship set and entities in other entity sets can take part
more than once in the relationship set, cardinality is many to
one.
◆​Let us assume that a student can take only one course but
one course can be taken by many students.
●​ So the cardinality will be n to 1.
 ○​ It means that for one course there can be n
students but for one student, there will be only
one course.

many to one cardinality

Using Sets, it can be represented as:

Set Representation of Many-to-One

➔​In this case, each student is taking only 1 course but 1 course
has been taken by many students.

4. Many-to-Many

➔​When entities in all entity sets can take part more than once in
the relationship cardinality is many to many.
◆​Let us assume that a student can take more than one
course and one course can be taken by many students. So
the relationship will be many to many.
many to many cardinality

Using Sets, it can be represented as:

Many-to-Many
Set Representation
 ➔​In this example, student S1 is enrolled in C1 and C3 and Course
C3 is enrolled by S1, S3, and S4. So it is a many-to-many
relationship.

Participation Constraint
➔​Participation Constraint is applied to the entity participating in
the relationship set.
1. Total Participation:
➔​Each entity in the entity set must participate in the relationship.
◆​If each student must enroll in a course, the participation of
students will be total.
●​ Total participation is shown by a double line in the
ER diagram.
2. Partial Participation:
➔​The entity in the entity set may or may NOT participate in the
relationship.
◆​If some courses are not enrolled by any of the students, the
participation in the course will be partial.​
​
The diagram depicts the ‘Enrolled in’ relationship set with
Student Entity set having total participation and Course
Entity set having partial participation.

Total Participation and Partial Participation

Using Set, it can be represented as,

Set representation of Total Participation and Partial Participation

Every student in the Student Entity set participates in a relationship

but there exists a course C4 that is not taking part in the relationship.

How to Draw an ER Diagram

➔​1. Identify Entities:
◆​The very first step is to identify all the Entities.
●​ Represent these entities in a Rectangle and label
them accordingly.

➔​2. Identify Relationships:

◆​The next step is to identify the relationship between them
and represent them accordingly using the Diamond shape.
●​ Ensure that relationships are not directly connected
to each other.

➔​3. Add Attributes:

◆​Attach attributes to the entities by using ovals.
●​ Each entity can have multiple attributes (such as
name, age, etc.), which are connected to the
respective entity.
➔​4. Define Primary Keys:
◆​Assign primary keys to each entity.
●​ These are unique identifiers that help distinguish
each instance of the entity.
○​ Represent them with underlined attributes.

➔​5. Remove Redundancies:

◆​Review the diagram and eliminate unnecessary or
repetitive entities and relationships.

➔​6. Review for Clarity:

◆​Review the diagram to make sure it is clear and effectively
conveys the relationships between the entities.