ERD Using Barker Notation

Chapter 4
Entities

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Attributes

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 Identify Unique Identifier (UID)
• Unique identifier is represented in the entity box
with the hash (pound sign) # symbol

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Optionality of a Relationship

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Relationships

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 Relationships
Optionality
• Mandatory
– Solid line in ERD
– MUST in ERDish

• Optional
– Dashed line in ERD
– MAY in ERDish

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Types of Relationships

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 Relationships
Cardinality
• One occurrence
– Single toe in ERD
– "one and only one" in ERDish
• One or more occurrences
– Crow's foot to denote "one or more" in ERD
– "one or more" in ERDish

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Relationships

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Entity-Relationship Diagram
Barker Notation

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 ERDish Language
• ERDish is the language used to state relationships
between entities in an ERD

• Consider EMPLOYEE - DEPARTMENT

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 Relationship
• A relationship:
– Always exist between two entities (or one entity twice)
– Every relationship goes in two directions
 Always has two sides
 Is named at both ends

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 The Components of ERDish
• Each relationship has two sides
• Read the first relationship from left to right

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The Components of ERDish

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The Components of ERDish

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 Relationships
• One-to-One (1:1)

• One-to-Many (1:M)

• Many-to-Many (M:M)

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 One-to-One Relationships
• One-to-One (1:1): A relationship where a single
instance in Entity A is related to one and only one
instance in Entity B, and a single instance in Entity
B is related to one and only one instance Entity A

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 One-to-One Relationships
• Mandatory at one end of the 1:1 relationship
commonly occurs when roles are modeled

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 One-to-Many (1:M) Relationships
• One-to-Many (1:M): A relationship where a single
instance in Entity A can be related to one or more
instances in Entity B, but a single instance in Entity
B can only be related to one instance in Entity A

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 Many-to-Many (M:M) Relationships
• Many-to-Many (M:M): A relationship in which many
instances in one entity match many instances in
another entity.
• Many-to-many relationships are typically hiding
another entity

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 Many-to-Many (M:M) Relationships
• M:M relationships are common in the first version
of an ER model
• In later stages of the modeling process, most M:M
relationships, and possibly all, will disappear

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 Resolving Many-to-Many Relationships
• Consider a large company like Wal-Mart that
handles many products and stores them in many
warehouses.

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 Many-to-Many Relationships
• What does this ERD say? It says that Wal-Mart can
only store their pineapples in one of their
warehouses

• Is that normally true?

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 Many-to-Many Relationships
• Now:
– Warehouses may store all products
– All products may be stored in any warehouse

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 Many-to-Many Relationships
• Problem? Where would quantity be stored?
• Many-to-many relationships hide an ENTITY
• Need an intersection entity

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 Intersection Entity
• A third entity called an
intersection entity is
needed to resolve a M:M
relationship

• The original M:M

relationship becomes two
1:M relationships

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 Intersection Entity
• What is the UID of the
Intersection entity?

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 Barred Relationship
• The unique identifier of the intersection entity
comes from the original relationships
• Represented by bars
• The relationship from the original entities to the
intersection entity are called "barred relationships"

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Intersection Entity

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Unique Identifiers

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UIDs from Barred Relationships

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UIDs from Barred Relationships

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The End

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Let's Try It

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M:M - Let's Try It

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Barred: Let's Try It

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Unique ID: Let's Try It

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Unique Identifiers

OR

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