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Huffman Trucking Entity-Relationship Model

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The Entity-Relationship Model ------------------------------------------------- Top of Form Bottom of Form Database Design Goal of design is to generate a formal specification of the database schema Methodology: 1. Use E-R model to get a high-level graphical view of essential components of enterprise and how they are related 2. Then convert E-R diagram to SQL DDL, or whatever database model you are using E-R Model is not SQL based. It 's not limited to any particular DBMS. It is a conceptual and semantic model – captures meanings rather than an actual implementation The E-R Model: The enterprise is viewed as set of * Entities * Relationships among entities Symbols used in E-R Diagram * Entity – rectangle …show more content…

Lines have no arrows. Use straight lines only] Relationships Relationship: connects two or more entities into an association/relationship * "John" majors in "Computer Science" Relationship Type: set of similar relationships * Student (entity type) is related to Department (entity type) by MajorsIn (relationship type). Relationship Types may also have attributes in the E-R model. When they are mapped to the relational model, the attributes become part of the relation. Represented by a diamond on E-R diagram. Relationship types can have descriptive attributes like entity sets Relationships tend to be verbs or verb phrases; attributes of relationships are again nouns [Drawing tips: relationship diamonds should connect off the left and right points; Dia can label those points with cardinality; use Manhattan connecting line (horizontal/vertical zigzag)] Attributes and Roles An attribute of a relationship type adds additional information to the relationship * e.g., "John" majors in "CS" since 2000 * John and CS are related * 2000 describes the relationship - it 's the value of the since attribute of MajorsIn relationship type The role of a relationship type names one of the related entities. The name of the entity is usually the role name. e.g., "John" is value of Student role, "CS" value of Department role of MajorsIn relationship type (John, CS, 2000) describes a relationship Problem: relationships

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