Relationships

 Associations between instances of one or more entity types that is of interest
 Given a name that describes its function.
• relationship name is an active or a passive verb.

Relationship name: 
writes

Author Book

An author writes one or more books
A book can be written by one or more authors.
Constraints on Relationship
Types
 Constraints limit the set of possible
combination of entities that can
participate in the relationship type
 Two main kinds of constraints:
 Cardinality constraints
 Participation constraints
Cardinality Constrain

Relationships can be classified as

either
` one – to – one
` one – to – many Cardinality Constrain
 ` many – to –many

Cardinality : minimum and maximum

number of instances of Entity B that
can (or must be) associated with each
instance of entity A.
 Cardinality Constraints on
Relationship Sets
Consider binary relationship set R
between entity sets A and B
One to one: an entity in A is associated
with at most one entity in B, and an entity
in B is associated with atmost one entity
in A.
◦ an employee has only one spouse in a married-
to relationship.
Many to One: An entity in A is associated
with at most one entity in B, an entity in B
is associated with many entities in A.
 
◦ an employee works in a single department but
Cardinality Constraints on
Relationship Sets (cont.)
Many to Many: An entity in A is
associated with many entities in B,
and an entity in B is associated with
many entities in A.
◦ A customer may have many bank
accounts. Accounts may be joint between
multiple customers.
 Notation
Chen Model
1
◦ 1 to represent one.
◦ M to represent many M

Crow’s Foot
One Mandatory one , means (1,1)

Partitipation constraint
many

One or many
 Multiplicity of
Relationships

Many­to­many Many­to­one One­to­one

multiplicity of relationship in ER diagram represented by an 
arrow pointing to “one”
 Many to Many
Relationship
N N
customer custacct account

opening date

Customer Account Start Date Customer Account Start Date

John 1001 Jan 20th 1999 John 1001 Jan 20th 1999
Megan  1001 March 16th  1999 Megan  1001 March 16th  1999
Megan 2001 Feb 18th 1994
legal  legal 

Multiple customers can share an

account
 Many to One Relationship
N 1
customer custacct account

opening date

Customer Account Start Date Customer Account Start Date

John 1001 Jan 20th 1999 John 1001 Jan 20th 1999
Megan  1001 March 16th  1999 Megan  1001 March 16th  1999
Megan 2001 Feb 18th 1994
Illegal legal

Multiple customers can share an

account but one customer can have
only one account.
 Relationship Attribute in a
Many to One Relationship
N 1
customer custacct account

opening date

In a Many-One relationship,

relationship attributes can be
repositioned to the entity set on the
many side.
N 1
customer custacct account

opening date
 One to One Relationship
1 1
customer custacct account

opening date
Illegal
1 Customer Account Start Date
customer can John 1001 Jan 20th 1999
have 1 account. Megan  1001 March 16th  1999

One account can be Illegal

Customer Account Start Date
owned by 1 Megan  1001 March 16th  1999
customer Megan 2001 Feb 18th 1994
Legal
relationship
Customer Account Start Date
attributes can be Megan  1001 March 16th  1999
John 2001 Feb 18th 1994
shifted to either of
 1:1 A car can only have 
car driver one driver; a driver can 
have only one car.

1:M A car can have 
car driver more than one driver; a 
driver can only one car.

1:M A car can have only 
car driver one driver; a driver can 
have more than one car.

M:N A car can have more than 
car driver one driver; a driver can have 
more than one car.
 Relationship 
A typical company name

manages Managing 
Company
Director

employs

take orders
Sales Staff Customer
 Participation Constraints
total participation is also called
existential dependency 
mandatory
If an entity does not have a total
participation in a relationship, it is
said to have a partial participation
 optional

 
Mandatory vs. Optional Cardinalities
 Specifies whether an instance must exist or can be
absent in the relationship

Mandatory Optional

handles
Lecturer Class
(1,1) (0,N)

M
1
Lecturer handles Class
(0,N) (1,1)

A Lecturer may handle zero or many classes. 

A class is handled by one and only one Lecturer.
 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
Three Types of
Relationships
Unary
The 1:1 Recursive
Relationship “EMPLOYEE is
Married to EMPLOYEE”
Implementation of the
M:N Recursive “PART
Contains PART”
Relationship
Implementation of the 1:M
“EMPLOYEE Manages
EMPLOYEE” Recursive
Relationship
 Binary Relationships

 1:M relationship
◦ Relational modeling ideal
◦ Should be the norm in any relational database design

The 1: M relationship between PAINTER and PAINTING 
The Implemented 1:M relationship between PAINTER and PAINTING 
Binary Relationships
 1:1 relationship
◦ Should be rare in any relational database design
◦ A single entity instance in one entity class is related to
a single entity instance in another entity class
◦ Could indicate that two entities actually belong in the
same table
The 1:1 Relationship Between PROFESSOR and DEPARTMENT
The Implemented 
1:1 Relationship 
Between 
PROFESSOR 
and 
DEPARTMENT 
Binary Relationships

 M:N relationships
◦ Must be avoided because they lead to data
redundancies.
◦ Can be implemented by breaking it up to
produce a set of 1:M relationships
◦ Can avoid problems inherent to M:N relationship
by creating a composite entity or bridge
entity
` This will be used to link the tables that were
originally related in a M:N relationship
` The composite entity structure includes-as
foreign keys-at least the primary keys of
 The M:N Relationship Between STUDENT and CLASS 

Bowser Accounting 1 (ACCT­211)

Intro to Microcomputing (CIS­220)
Smithson

Intro to Statistics (QM­261)

This CANNOT be implemented as shown next…..
The tables have many redundancies!!

+ CLASS_CODE
CLASS_CODE

+ STU_NUM
Changing the M:N relationship to TWO 1:M relationships
 The database designer has 2 main options to 
define a composite table’s primary key: 
either 
use the combination of those foreign 
keys or create a new primary key.

Foreign keys reference the primary keys in the 
other tables of which it has a relationship with

Converting the M:N relationship into TWO 1:M relationships 
How to Evaluate a Data Model?
A good data model has the following:
◦ Accuracy and completeness
◦ Non redundancy
◦ Enforcement of business rules
◦ Data Reusability
◦ Stability and Flexibility
◦ Communication Effectiveness
◦ Simplicity
Next ….
Enhanced/Extended ER model…
 PR : A hospital in-patient
system
 A hospital is organised into a number of
wards.
 Each ward has a ward number and a
name recorded, along with a number of
beds in that ward.
 Each ward is staffed by nurses.
 Nurses have their staff number and name
recorded, and are assigned to a single
ward.
 Each patient in the hospital has a patient
identification number, and their name,
address and date of birth are recorded.
 Each patient is under the care of a single
consultant and is assigned to a single
ward.
 Each consultant is responsible for a
Exercise on In-patient
system
1. State 4 entities for the system
giving a suitable identifier for each
entity.
2. Draw an entity-relationship
diagram to show the relationships
between the entities.
 Semoga Bermanfaat,
Sekian dan Terimakasih