Entity Relationship Diagram

Rectangles: represent entity sets.

Diamonds: represent relationship sets.
Ellipses: represent attributes
Double ellipses: represent multivalued
attributes.
Dashed ellipses: denote derived attributes.
Lines: link attributes to entity sets and
entity sets to relationship sets.
Underline: indicates primary key attributes
 Participation of an Entity Set in a
Relationship Set
Total participation (indicated by double line):
every entity in the entity set participates in at
least one relationship in the relationship set
E.g. participation department in manages is total.
every department must have a manager associated
to it via manages
Partial participation: some entities may not
participate in any relationship in the
relationship set
E.g. participation of employee in manages is partial.
Some staff (employee) manage departments.
 Degree of Relationships
Degree: number of entity types that participate
in a relationship
Three cases
Unary: between two instances of one entity type
Binary: between the instances of two entity types
Ternary: among the instances of three entity types
 Weak Entity Sets
An entity set that does not have a primary key
is referred to as a weak entity set.
The primary key of a weak entity set is formed
by the primary key of the strong entity set on
which the weak entity set is existence
dependent
Ex: The employee has children.
We depict a weak entity set by double
rectangles.
 Example of Weak Entity
A weak entity can be identified uniquely only by considering the
primary key of another (owner) entity.
Owner entity set and weak entity set must participate in a one-
to-many relationship set (one owner, many weak entities).
Weak entity set must have total participation in this identifying
relationship set.
Examples of ERD