Fundamentals of Database systems

DSE 310, Autumn 2022-23

ER Model
Lecture Objectives:
● Design Process of database systems
● Study basic constructs of ER diagram
● Study how ER diagrams are drawn
● Translation of ER model to relation schemas
● Extended features of ER Model
● Design issues
 Weak Entity Sets:

● Consider two entities course and section

related with sec_course relationship.
● Can a section exist without association
to a course?
 Reduction of ER diagrams to Relational Schemas

● We can represent a database that conforms to an E-R database schema by a

collection of relation schemas.
● For each entity set and for each relationship set in the database design, there is
a unique relation schema to which we assign the name of the corresponding
entity set or relationship set.
● Both the E-R model and the relational database model are abstract, logical
representations of real-world enterprises.
● Because the two models employ similar design principles, we can convert an
E-R design into a relational design