Entity Relationship Diagrams

Goals of Database Design

To full fill information requirements of the users and application To support all processing requirements as well as all performance criteria like response time, processing time and storage space Provide very simple and easy to understand structure of the information

Phases of database design process

Before designing any database application one must know goals of the system, expectations of the end users and uses of database application in detailed manner Check all data requirements produced by the previous phase and design the characteristics of known database transactions The choice of DBMS depends upon factors like technical, economical etc Simple abstractions of real world data gives the idea of how the system will work Select the data structure and access paths of database files to achieve good performance Database system can be implemented only after logical and physical design is implemented

ER Model
In 1976 Chen developed the Entity Relationship (ER) model a high level data model that is useful in developing a conceptual design for a database Constructing ER diagram is a first step in designing a database ER model defines the data elements and relationships among them ER data model is based on perception of real world data consisting of entities (data items) and relationships among those entities Popular high level conceptual model used for conceptual design of database

ER Diagrams
Uses ER model for solving design problems Diagrammatic notation associated with ER model Consists of Entity, Attributes and Relationships Diagrams/Notations used in ER diagrams
Rectangle entity sets Ellipses attributes Diamonds relationship sets Lines link attributes to entities and entities with entities Double Lines indicates total participation of an entity in a relationship Double Rectangles weak entity sets

Entities
A fundamental component of ER model It is a thing in real world with its own independent existence. E.g. Student, Faculty May be an object with physical or logical existence Has its own properties that describe the entity known as attributes Entity Set
Collection of all entities of same type Strong Entity Entity type having own distinct primary key by which we can identify specific entity uniquely. E.g. Empno in Emp table, RollNo in Student table. Represented by single rectangle Weak Entity Entity type which cannot form distinct primary key from their attributes. These type of entities are dependent on stron entity for primary key. Some weak entities contain virtual primary key called as Discriminator. Represented by double rectangle

Attributes
Various properties that describe an entity Attribute value that describes each entity becomes a major part of data stored in database as each entity will have some value for each of its attributes. E.g. Employee entity has name, age, phone etc. as attributes Simple Attributes
Which cannot be divided into sub parts E. g. Salary of employee

Composite Attributes
Which can be divided into sub parts E.g. Name can be divided into FirstName and LastName

Single Valued Attribute

Having atomic (only one) value for particular entity. E.g. Student has only one roll no

Multi Valued Attribute

Many values for a particular entity E.g.Employee has multiple mobile numbers

Attributes Contd
Stored Attributes
Simple attributes stored in database E.g. DateOfJoin for Employee

Derived Attributes
Value of this attribute is derived from value of related stored attribute E.g. EmployeeTenure can be calculated from DateOfJoin

Null Attribute
Can take a null value when entity does not have a value for it or the value is unknown. E.g. Commission attribute in Employee table specifies whether the Employee has commission or not

Key Attribute
Must have a unique value by which any row can be identified. E.g. Deptno for department table

ER Notations For Various Types Of Attributes

Type Attribute (Single/Simple/Stored) Notation

Key Attribute

Multi valued Attribute

Composite Attribute

Derived Attrbute

Relationships
An association among several entities Use diamond to illustrate in ER diagrams and read from left to right Degree
Number of participating entities in a relation

Relationship Set
Collection of all relationship of same type
Employee Work s For Department

Constraints On Relationships
Mapping Constraints / Cardinalities
Number of entities to which another entity is associated Type
ONE is to ONE One tuple in entity is related only with one tuple in another entity. One department can have only one manager ONE is to MANY One tuple in entity is related with many tuples in another entity. One department can have many employees MANY is to MANY Many tuples in entity is related many tuples in another entity. Books in library issued by students

Constraints On Relationships Contd

Participation Constraints
Total Participation
Every object in an entity must participate in relationship Indicated by dark or double line between entity and relationship Every department must have manager

Partial Participation
More than one object in an entity may participate in a relationship Indicated by single line between entity and relationship Employee works for department

Notations Used in ER Diagrams

Cardinality Ratio Notation
Use cardinality of each identity involved in relation 1 (Exactly One Instance), M (Many Instances), N (Any Number Of Instances) specifies on each entity of binary relationship

Min-Max Notation
(Min , Max) notation represents entity is related to at least min, at most max relationship instance in relationship set

(Min,Max) notation relationship The constraints

(0,1) (1,1) (1,1) Department

(1,1)

(1,N) (1,N)

Limitations Of Entity Relationship Model

One cannot represent relationship like inheritance in ER diagrams No relationships is defined between entity type and relationship type No relationship is defined between entity type and collection of entity type from which one may participate. E.g. EMPLOYEE is an individual entity where as it is set of entities in case of COMPANY database and hence we cannot show relationship between individual company and set of employees

Extended Entity Relationship Model ERD Issues

EER model includes all modeling concept of ER model In addition it includes the concept of specialization and generalization EER model is used to represent collection of objects that is union of objects of different entity types A diagrammatic technique for displaying the EER concepts is called as EER diagrams

Sub Class Super Class And Inheritance

Super Class
The class has its sub groupings An entity cannot exist in database merely by being member of any super class

Sub Class
A sub grouping of super class More specific version of super class Inherits properties and attributes from its super class

Super Class And Sub Class Relationship

Relationship between super class and sub class is called SuperClass/SubClass relationship Shown by encircled d Leads to concept of Inheritance

Sub Class Super Class And Inheritance Contd

Inheritance
Important concept associated with subclass Type of an entity is defined by an attribute poses by a relationship types in which they participates Entity in subclass represent entity from upper class it should poses value for specific attribute as member of super class Entity represents all relationships in which super class participates Entity that is the member of subclass inhabits all attributes of entity as a member of super class

Specialization And Generalization

Specialization
Top down approach of superclass/ subclass relationship Process of defining a set of subclass of entity type called also as super class of specialization Set of subclasses that forms a specialization is defined on the basis of some distinguishing characteristic of entity in super class E.g. Set of subclass (Saving_Account, Current_Account) are specialization of superclass Account The subclass defined n specialization is attached by lines to a circle which is connected to super class Subset symbol on each line connecting a subclass to circle indicates the direction of super class/ subclass relationship An attribute applied only to entities of particular subclass is called as specific attribute

Generalization
Reverse process of specialization or bottom up approach of super class/ subclass relationship Process in which we differentiate among several entity types identifying their common features and generalizing them into single super class of which original entity type are special subclasses E.g. Car and Bike do have several common attributes that can be generalized to super class vehicle In diagrammatical notation arrow pointing to generalized super class represents generalization and arrow pointing to generalized subclass represents specialization Attributes created of higher or lower level entities are attributes inheritance

Codd s Rule
Information Rule All available data in system should be represented as relations or tables. Guaranteed Access Rule Each data item must be accessible without ambiguity by providing table name and its primary key of the row also include its column name to be accessed Systematic Treatment Of Null Values Null values are not equal to blank space or zero they are unknown unassigned values which should be treated properly Self Describing Database There should be dynamic online catalog based dictionary on relational model which keep information about tables data in database Comprehensive Data Sublanguage The data access language (SQL) must be the only means of accessing data stored in the database and support DML, DDL etc. View Updating Rule All views of data are theoretically updateable can be updated using system also

Codd s Rule
High Level Insert, Update And Delete This rule states that in a relational database , the query language must be capable of performing manipulations on sets of rows in a table Physical Data Independence Any changes made in the way is physically stored must not affect applications that access data Logical Data Independence This rule states that changes to the database to the database design should be done in a way without the users being aware of it Integrity Independence Data integrity constraints which are definable in the language must be stored in the database as data in table is, in the catalog and not in the application program Distribution Independence In a RDBMS data can be stored centrally that is on a system or distributed across multiple systems Non Subversion Rule This rule states that there should be no bypass of constraints by any other languages

Relational Database Model

First proposed by Dr. E. F. Codd hence known as father of relational model Was an attempt to simplify database structure by making use of tables and columns Collection of 2-dimensional tables having unique names which consists of rows and columns Tables are known as relations columns are known as attributes and rows or records are known as tuples A row in a table represents a relationship among a set of values. Thus a table represents a collection of relationships

Logical View Of Data : Table (Relation)

Introduction
Tables / Relations are logical structure which is a collection of 2-dimensional tables consisting of horizontal rows and vertical columns It is an abstract concept and do not represent how data is stored in physical memory of computer system Each table in database has its own unique table name by which its contents can be referred

Logical View Of Data : Table (Relation)

Characteristics
A table is perceived as 2-dimensional structure composed of rows and columns Each table row(tuple) represents a single entity occurrence within the entity set Each table column represents an attribute and each column has a distinct name Each row/column intersection represents a single data value All values in a column must confirm to the same data format Each column has specific range of values known as attribute domain The order of the rows and columns is immaterial to DBMS Each table must have an attribute or a combination of attributes that uniquely identifies each row

Logical View Of Data : Table (Relation)

Attributes
Each column in the table represents one data item stored in it database for that table Such column in database is called as attribute of a table Tables must have at least one column in it and no two columns can have same name The ANSI/ISO SQL standard does not specify a maximum number of columns in a table

Tuple/Records
A single row or tuple contains all the information about a single entity Each horizontal row of the table represents a single entity A table can have ay number of rows from zero to thousand If number of rows are zero then it is called as empty table

Key
The column value that uniquely identifies a single record in the table is called as KEY of table An attribute or set of attributes whose values uniquely identify each entity in an entity set is called as key for that entity set Any key consisting of single attribute is called a simple key while that consisting of a combination of attributes is called a composite key

Types Of Keys
Super Key A key attribute with additional attributes that uniquely identifies a single record in a table Candidate Key Super key without its unnecessary attributes Primary Key Column or combination of columns whose values uniquely identify a single row in that table Secondary Key Column or combination of columns used for data retrieval process Foreign Key A column or collection of columns in one table must match the primary key in some other table. This link is also called as referential integrity

Integrity Rules
Entity Integrity All primary key entries are unique and no part of primary key may be null. Each row will have unique identity and foreign key values can properly reference primary key values Referential Integrity It can have a null entry as long as it is not a part of its tables primary key or an entry that matches the primary key value in a table to which it is related. It is possible for an attribute NOT to have a corresponding value but it will be impossible to have an invalid entry. The enforcement of referential integrity rule makes it impossible to delete a row in one table whose primary key has mandatory matching foreign key values in another table Not Null As per requirements there are some values which should not be having any NULL value Unique In this case no two tuples can have equal value for same attribute Check Define own integrity rule using CHECK constraint

Features Of Good Relational Database Design Normalization

Step by step decomposition of complex relational tables into simple table Results in tables that represented in a simple manner and satisfy some constraints Avoids data redundancy by applying some constraints on data to avoid various data anomalies A normalized table is less vulnerable to data problems Process of designing a consistent database by minimizing redundancy and ensuring data integrity through the principle of non-loss decomposition

Goals Of Normalization
Ensures Data Integrity Data integrity ensures the correctness of data stored within the database and can be achieved by imposing data integrity rules. An integrity rules restricts values present in the database Prevents Redundancy A non normalized data is stored in different locations and hence modification makes data inconsistent. A normalized data stores data only in one place. Direct redundancy can result due to presence of same data in two different locations . Indirect redundancy results due to storing information that can be computed from the other data items stored within the database Data Anomalies Update Anomaly Same information can be present in multiple records of various tables hence update to only one table will result in inconsistency Insertion Anomaly There is a possibility in which certain facts cannot be recorded at all or that are not yet recorded Deletion Anomaly Deletion of some data from a relation necessitates the deletion of unrelated data also

Disadvantages Of Normalization
Increases number of relations
As normalization involves the decomposition of relations into multiple relations or tables hence higher degrees of normalization typically involve more tables. Therefore if highly normalized tables are used in database applications then the application becomes complex

Reduces performances
Higher degrees of normalization involve more tables and create the need for a larger number of joins which can reduce performance

Some redundancies are unavoidable. While normalizing the tables data integrity should not be compromised

Normal Forms
Forms are designed to logically address potential problems such as inconsistencies and redundancy in information stored in the database. A database is said to be in one of the Normal Forms if it satisfies the rules required by that form as well as the previous form and it will also not suffer from any of the problems addressed by the form Types Of Normal Forms
First Normal Form (1NF) Second Normal Form (2NF) Third Normal Form (3NF) Boyce Codd Normal Form (BCNF) Fourth Normal Form (4NF) Fifth Normal Form (5NF)

Un Normalized Data
Faculty Code 100 Faculty Name Yogesh Date Of Birth 17/07/64 Subject DSA SS IS MIS 101 Amit 24/12/72 PM IS PWRC 102 Omprakash 03/02/80 PCOM IP DT 103 Nitin 28/11/66 PCOM SS DT 104 Mahesh 01/01/86 ADBMS PWRC Hours 16 8 12 16 8 12 8 8 16 10 8 8 10 8 8

First Normal Form (1NF)

A relation is in 1NF if every contains exactly one value for each attribute 1NF states that attributes included in relation must have atomic values and that any attribute in tuple must have a single value from the domain of that attribute The above table does not have any atomic values in the Subject column , hence it is in un normalized form The above table in 1NF will be as follows

1NF Table
Faculty Code 100 100 100 101 101 101 102 102 102 103 103 103 104 104 104 Faculty Name Yogesh Yogesh Yogesh Amit Amit Amit Omprakash Omprakash Omprakash Nitin Nitin Nitin Mahesh Mahesh Mahesh Date Of Birth 17/07/64 17/07/64 17/07/64 24/12/72 24/12/72 24/12/72 03/02/80 03/02/80 03/02/80 28/11/66 28/11/66 28/11/66 01/01/86 01/01/86 01/01/86 Subject DSA SS IS MIS PM IS PWRC PCOM IP DT PCOM SS DT ADBMS PWRC Hours 16 8 12 16 8 12 8 8 16 10 8 8 10 8 8

 A relation is in 2NF if it is in 1NF and every non-key attribute is fully functionally dependent on primary key of the relation and not just part of the primary key 2NF prohibits partial dependencies Steps
Find and remove attributes that are related to only a part of the key Group the removed attributes in another table Assign the new table the key that consists of that part of the old composite key

Second Normal Form

Hence in our example we will have two tables

Faculty (Faculty Code, Faculty Name, Date Of Birth) Subject (Faculty Code, Subject, Hours)

Anomalies
Inserting records of various faculties teaching the same subject results in redundancy of hours information As number of hours is repeated any change done has to repeated for every instance If a faculty leaves the organization information regarding the subject is also lost

Third Normal Form

This normal form is used to reduce transitive dependency If A is dependent on B and B is dependent on C then A is said to transitively dependent on C A relation is in 3NF if it is in 2NF and no non-key attribute of the relation is transitively dependent on the primary key 3NF prohibits transitive dependencies In the above table hours depends on Subject and Subject depends on Faculty Code. Hence there exists a transitive dependency between these three. If the faculty code is deleted the information regarding the subject is lost For a table to be in 3NF transitive dependency must be removed. So the 3NF table becomes
Faculty_Subject (Faculty Code, Subject) Subject_Hours (Subject, Hours)

Advantages
No redundancy of data for subject and hours while inserting records Subject and hours are stored in separate table so Updation becomes easier Even if faculty record is deleted subject hours can still be retrieved

BCNF Normal Form

The intention of BCNF is that 3NF does not satisfactorily handle the case of a relation processing two or more composite or overlapping candidate keys Candidate key is a column which has the ability to become a primary key A determinant is any attribute on which some other attribute is fully functionally dependent A relation is in BCNF if and only if every determinant is a candidate key Consider the following table in which there is a dependency between (SoldierId + OfficerId) and UnitId. There is also a dependency between UnitId and OfficerId which is not partial neither transitive What we have is a table where a determinate is not a candidate key UnitId. This problem can be solved by BCNF

BCNF Normal Form Contd

SoldierId 1 2 3 OfficerId A A B UnitId 1 1 2

SoldierId 1 2 3

UnitId 1 1 2

OfficerId A A B

UnitId 1 1 2

Introduction To UML
UML or Unified Modeling Language is a specification language that is used in the software engineering field It can be defined as general purpose language that is used to design an abstract model which can be used in the system. This system is called UML model UML is commonly used to visualize and construct software oriented systems. Because software has become much more complex nowadays, developers are finding it more challenging to build complex application within short periods of time UML is specially proposed standard for creating specifications of various components of a complex software system

Types Of UML Diagrams

Class diagram
Most popular UML diagrams used for construction of software applications Similar to E-R diagram It is a static diagram Shown using class as its basic entity and lines between them represents relationship between them Describes the attributes and operations of a class and also the constraints imposed on the system

Use case diagram

Shows the interaction between users and the system in particular steps of tasks that users perform Purpose is to capture the dynamic aspect of a system Purpose is to gather requirements of a system and to identify external and internal factors influencing the system

Types Of UML Diagrams Contd

Activity diagram
Is basically a flowchart to represent the flow from one activity to another. The activity can be described as an operation of the system It is a particular operation of the system Are not only used for visualizing dynamic nature of a system but also used to construct the executable system by using forward and reverse engineering techniques

Implementation diagram
Are deployment diagrams which are used for describing about the hardware components where software components are deployed

Advantages And Disadvantages Of UML Diagrams

Advantages
It is the most useful method of visualization and documenting software systems design It is effective for modeling large, complex software systems It is simple to learn, but provides advanced features for expert analysts, engineers, designers and architects It can specify systems in an implementation- independent manner It specifies a skeleton that can be refined and extended with additional features It specifies the functional requirements of system in an object oriented manner

Disadvantages
Still no specification for modeling of graphical user interface Poor for distributed systems no way to formally specify serialization and object persistence