Download Rel model/ER transform lecture

COIS20026 Database
Development & Management
Week 3 –The Relational Model
Prepared by: Angelika Schlotzer
Updated by: Satish Balmuri
Updated by: Tony Dobele
Week 3: The Relational Model

Objectives:
describe & use the terms relation, tuple,
attribute, domain
 describe the various types of keys
(primary, candidate, alternate,
composite/concatenated)
 Explain the role of foreign keys
 list 6 properties of relations
 Define the entity integrity and referential
integrity rules.

Objectives (cont’d)

Transform an ERD to a logically equivalent
set of relations, including:
Regular & weak entity types
 relationships of different cardinality & degree
 Associative entity types
 Supertype/subtypes
 Other ER modelling constructs

Note : Unless otherwise mentioned all the references of this lecture material are from
the prescribed course text book or images from publishers.
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Logical Design
•
Logical design is the process of
transforming the conceptual model
/design (in our case the ERD) into a
logical model/design. (McFadden, et al., 2004)
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Relational Model

Relational data model has 3 main
components:



data structure - data organised into tables
with rows and columns
data manipulation - operations (using SQL
language) used to manipulate stored data
data integrity - facilities are included to
specify business rules to maintain integrity of
data as they are being manipulated
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Some Definitions

Relation - named, two-dimensional table
of data




fixed number of columns
variable number of rows
single, simple value at each intersection of
row & column
shorthand text notation for its data structure
is:
EMPLOYEE1(EmpID, Name, DeptName, Salary)
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Definitions (cont’d)

graphic representation of a relation is shown
as:
EMPLOYEE1
EmpID

Name DeptName
Salary
Attributes (columns) - data items that are
contained in the relation


represent the data items that need to be
stored for an entity
each attribute can come from a different
domain
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Six Properties of Relations
(McFadden et al., 2002, p 190)






each relation in a database has a unique name
an entry at each row & column intersection is
single-valued (atomic)
each row is unique
Each attribute within a table has a unique name
sequence of columns from left to right is
insignificant
sequence of rows from top to bottom is
insignificant
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More Definitions

Row (tuple) - represents an entity
instance


1 row (tuple) for each relation instance
currently in the database (can be zero)
NULL 


an attribute in a relation may not currently
have a value associated with it
represents the absence of a value; ie the
value is unknown
the primary key cannot be null
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Relational Keys

Key 

any attribute or group of attributes that can
uniquely identify 1 row (tuple) in a relation
Candidate key 
any attribute that could act as a key for the relation

often there is more than 1 attribute that could serve this
purpose
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Relational Keys

Primary Key 


the attribute(s) selected to function as the
unique identifier for the relation
should never contain more than the absolute
minimum number of attributes required to
uniquely identify a row
Alternate Keys 
attributes that were candidate keys but were
not selected to be the primary key
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Relational Keys

Composite (Concatenated) Key 
when more than 1 attribute of a relation is
chosen to function as the primary key; eg
FLIGHT(FlightID, Date, PassengerNo)
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Relational Keys

Foreign Key 

attribute in a relation of the database that serves as
the primary key of another relation within the
database
occurs when relationships between 2 tables
(relations) must be represented
DEPARTMENT (DeptName, Location, Fax)
EMPLOYEE1 (EmpID, Name, DeptName, Salary)
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Figure 5-3 -- Schema for four relations (Pine Valley Furniture)
Primary Key
Foreign Key
(implements 1:N relationship
between customer and order)
Combined, these are a composite
primary key (uniquely identifies the
order line)…individually they are
foreign keys (implement M:N
relationship between order and
product)
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Integrity Constraints


Constraints are designed to assist in
maintaining accuracy & integrity of data
contained in the database
Domain Constraints:

all values in a column of a relation must be
taken from the same domain
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Entity Integrity


Designed to assure that every relation has
a primary key with valid data values
(guarantees primary key cannot be null)
Entity integrity rule:

No part of a primary key may be null.
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Referential Integrity


The relational model defines associations
between tables through use of a foreign
key
The referential integrity constraint
maintains consistency among rows of 2
relations
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Referential Integrity Rule

If there is a foreign key in a relation,
either each foreign key value must match
a primary key value in the other relation
or else the foreign key value must be null
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Figure 5-5:
Referential integrity constraints (Pine Valley Furniture)
Referential
integrity
constraints are
drawn via arrows
from dependent to
parent table
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Transforming EERD into
Relations

Logical design involves transforming
entity-relationship (and Enhanced ERD)
diagrams developed during conceptual
design into relational database schemas

process has a set of well-defined rules (steps)
to complete the conversion
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Step 1: Map Regular Entities


Recall that regular entities have
independent existence
Each regular entity is transformed into a
relation



name given to the relation is usually that of
the entity type
each simple attribute becomes an attribute in
the relation
entity type identifier becomes primary key of
the relation
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Figure 5-8: Mapping a regular entity
(a) CUSTOMER
entity type with
simple
attributes
(b) CUSTOMER relation
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Step 1: Map Regular Entities
(cont’d)


for composite attributes, only the simple
attributes are included in the relation
for multi-valued attributes, 2 new relations are
created the first relation containing all of the simple
attributes
 a second relation containing the primary key
attribute of the first relation as an attribute & an
attribute for the multi-valued attribute
 in the second relation these 2 attributes
will become a concatenated primary key

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Figure 5-9: Mapping a composite attribute
(a) CUSTOMER
entity type with
composite
attribute
(b) CUSTOMER relation with address detail
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Figure 5-10: Mapping a multivalued attribute
(a)
Multivalued attribute becomes a separate relation with foreign key
(b)
1 – to – many relationship between original entity and new relation
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Dealing with Multi-Valued
Attributes (another example)
GOLFER
PlayerID
{Membership}
GOLFER
PlayerID
Name
Address
GOLF_MEMBERSHIP
PlayerID
Membership
This relation will have 1
row for each club in which
a player has membership
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Step 2: Map Weak Entities

Recall that a weak entity cannot exist
independently 


has an identifying owner
does not have its own complete identifier
does have a partial identifier to distinguish
among instances
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Step 2: Map Weak Entities
(cont’d)

For each weak entity:

create a new relation containing all the simple attributes of the weak entity
 only the simple attributes of any composite
attributes
 include the primary key of the owner relation as a
foreign key attribute


make the primary key from the owner
relation & the partial identifier of the weak
entity the concatenated primary key for the
new relation
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NOTE: the domain constraint
for the foreign key should
NOT allow null value if
DEPENDENT is a weak
entity
Foreign key
Composite primary key
Figure 5-11(b) Relations resulting from weak entity
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Step 3: Map Binary
Relationships


Procedure for this dependent on
relationship degree & cardinalities
Map Binary One-to-Many Relationships:

for each 1:M relationship
first create the two participating entity relations
 include the primary key attribute of the 1 relation
as an attribute (foreign key) in the M relation
(many side)

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Figure 5-12: Example of mapping a 1:M relationship
(a) Relationship between customers and orders
Note the mandatory one
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Figure 5-12(b) Mapping the relationship
Again, no null value in the
foreign key…this is because
of the mandatory minimum
cardinality
Foreign key
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Map Binary Many-to-Many
Relationships

For each M:N (many-to-many) relationship 

create the relations for the entities
create a new relation add the primary keys of the participating entity types
as foreign keys
 become the concatenated primary key of
the new relation
 add any non-key attributes associated with the M:N
relationship

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Figure 5-13: Example of mapping an M:N relationship
(a) ER diagram (M:N)
The Completes relationship will need to become a separate relation
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Figure 5-13(b) Three resulting relations
Composite primary key
Foreign key
Foreign key
New
intersection
relation
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Map Binary One-to-One
Relationships




Special case of 1:M relationships
Create 1 relation for each of the participating
entities
add the primary key of the entity type that has
mandatory participation to the relation for the
entity type that has optional participation in the
relationship
add any relationship attributes to the relation
with the foreign key
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Figure 5-14: Mapping a binary 1:1 relationship
(a) Binary 1:1 relationship
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Figure 5-14(b) Resulting relations
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Step 4: Map Associative Entities


First create a relation for each participating
entity type and the associative entity
include the primary keys of the two regular
entity relations as attributes of the associative
relation


these keys become the concatenated primary key if
the associative relation has no identifier
these keys become foreign keys if the associative
relation has an identifier
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Figure 5-16: Mapping an associative entity
(a) Associative entity
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Figure 5-16(b) Three resulting relations
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Step 5: Map Unary Relationships


Recall that a unary relationship is a
relationship between instances of a single
entity type
Unary 1:M Relationships:


create a relation for the entity type
within the relation you just created add the
primary key attribute as a foreign key
attribute (needs to have a different name)
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Figure 5-17: Mapping a unary 1:N relationship
(a) EMPLOYEE
entity with recursive
relationship
(b) EMPLOYEE relation
with recursive foreign key
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Unary M:N Relationships



First create 2 relations  one to represent the entity type in the
relationship
 one to represent the M:N relationship
Associative relation has primary key consisting
of 2 attributes (with different names) that both
take their values from primary key of the
relation created for the entity type
add any nonkey attributes of the relationship to
the associative relation
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Figure 5-18: Mapping a unary M:N relationship
(a) Bill-of-materials
relationships (M:N)
(b) ITEM and COMPONENT relations
Note that Item_No in COMPONENT
table is a foreign key and part of
primary key
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Step 6: Map Ternary
Relationships
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Ternary relationship is a relationship among 3
entity types
The relationship is usually transformed in the
ERD to an associative relationship
create the relations for the entity types
create an associative relation for the associative
relationship


Figure 5.19
include the primary keys of the other 3 relations
(generally become the concatenated primary key
for this relation)
add attributes belonging to associative entity
type
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Figure 5-19: Mapping a ternary relationship
(a) Ternary relationship with associative entity
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Figure 5-19(b) Mapping the ternary relationship
Remember that the
primary key MUST be
unique
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Step 7: Map Supertype/ Subtype
Relationships


These relationship types are not directly
supported by relational data model
Most common strategy employed is:


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create a separate relation for the supertype and
each subtype
assign the attributes common to all subtypes to the
supertype
for each subtype add the primary key of the
supertype & attributes unique to itself
assign one (maybe more) attributes of the supertype
to function as subtype discriminator
Figure 5.20 & 5.21
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Figure 5-20: Supertype/subtype relationships
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Figure 5-21:
Mapping Supertype/subtype relationships to relations
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Summary


The objective of logical design is to
transform the conceptual model (ERD or
EERD) into a logical data model with wellstructured relations that minimise
redundancies & inconsistencies
(anomalies)
Integrity constraints assist in maintaining
the accuracy & integrity of data in the
resulting database
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Summary (cont’d)

Each entity type & relationship in the
entity-relationship diagram is mapped into
corresponding relations

This mapping process has a well-defined
sequence of steps that identify how to map
each entity & relationship type into wellstructured relations
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Summary (cont’d)

Supertype/subtype relationships are not
directly supported by the relational data
model but,

can be represented by creating a relation for
the supertype & each subtype and including a
subtype discriminator attribute in the
supertype
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Next Week


Next week we will be looking at
Normalisation
Ensure you do text book readings as per
study guide.
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