Chapter 4 RelationalDataModelAndRelationalMapping

Chapter 4:
Relational Data Model and

ER/EER-to-Relational Mapping
Jan - 2014 1
Contents
1 Relational Data Model

2 Main Phases of Database Design
3 ER-/EER-to-Relational Mapping
Jan - 2014 2
Contents

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Relational Data Model
 Basic Concepts: relational data model,
relation schema, domain, tuple, cardinality &
degree, database schema, etc.
 Relational Integrity Constraints
 key, primary key & foreign key
 entity integrity constraint
 referential integrity
 Update Operations on Relations
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Basic Concepts
 The relational model of data is based on the
concept of a relation
 A relation is a mathematical concept based
on the ideas of sets
 The model was first proposed by Dr. E.F.
Codd of IBM in 1970 in the following paper:
"A Relational Model for Large Shared Data
Banks," Communications of the ACM, June
1970
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Basic Concepts
 Relational data model: represents a database
in the form of relations - 2-dimensional table
with rows and columns of data. A database may
contain one or more such tables. A relation
schema is used to describe a relation
 Relation schema: R(A1, A2,…, An) is made up
of a relation name R and a list of attributes A1,
A2, . . ., An. Each attribute Ai is the name of a
role played by some domain D in the relation
schema R. R is called the name of this relation
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Basic Concepts
 The degree of a relation is the number of
attributes n of its relation schema.
 Domain D: D is called the domain of Ai and
is denoted by dom(Ai). It is a set of atomic
values and a set of integrity constraints
 STUDENT(Name, SSN, HomePhone, Address,
OfficePhone, Age, GPA)
 Degree = ??
 dom(GPA) = ??
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Basic Concepts
 Tuple: row/record in table
 Cardinality: number of tuples in a table
 Database schema S = {R1, R2,…, Rm}
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Basic Concepts
 A relation r (or relation state, relation
instance) of the relation schema R(A1, A2, .
. ., An), also denoted by r(R), is a set of n-
tuples r = {t1, t2, . . ., tm}.
 Each n-tuple t is an ordered list of n values t =
<v1, v2, . . ., vn>, where each value vi, i=1..n, is
an element of dom(Ai) or is a special null value.
The ith value in tuple t, which corresponds to the
attribute Ai, is referred to as t[Ai]
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Basic Concepts
Relational data model

Database schema
Relation schema
Relation
Tuple
Attribute
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Basic Concepts
 A relation can be conveniently represented
by a table, as the example shows
 The columns of the tabular relation represent
attributes
 Each attribute has a distinct name, and is
always referenced by that name, never by its
position
 Each row of the table represents a tuple. The
ordering of the tuples is immaterial and all
tuples must be distinct
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Basic Concepts
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Basic Concepts
 Alternative Terminology for Relational Model
Formal Terms Informal Terms
Relation Table
Attribute Column Header
Domain All possible Column Values
Tuple Row
Schema of a Relation Table Definition
State of the Relation Populated Table
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Relational Integrity Constraints
 Constraints are conditions that must hold on
all valid relation instances. There are three
main types of constraints:
 Key constraints
 Entity integrity constraints
 Referential integrity constraints
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Relational Integrity Constraints
 Null value
 Represents value for an attribute that is currently
unknown or inapplicable for tuple
 Deals with incomplete or exceptional data
 Represents the absence of a value and is not the
same as zero or spaces, which are values
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Relational Integrity Constraints -
Key Constraints
 Superkey of R: A set of attributes SK of R
such that no two tuples in any valid relation
instance r(R) will have the same value for
SK. That is, for any distinct tuples t1 and t2
in r(R), t1[SK]  t2[SK]
 Key of R: A "minimal" superkey; that is, a
superkey K such that removal of any attribute
from K results in a set of attributes that is not
a superkey
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Key Constraints
Example: The CAR relation schema:
CAR(State, Reg#, SerialNo, Make, Model, Year) has two
keys
Key1 = {State, Reg#}
Key2 = {SerialNo}, which are also superkeys. {SerialNo,
Make} is a superkey but not a key
 If a relation has several candidate keys, one
is chosen arbitrarily to be the primary key.
The primary key attributes are underlined.
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Key Constraints
 The CAR relation, with two candidate keys:
License_Number and Engine_Serial_Number
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Entity Integrity
 Relational Database Schema: A set S of relation
schemas that belong to the same database. S is the
name of the database: S = {R1, R2, ..., Rn}
 Entity Integrity: primary key attributes PK of each
relation schema R in S cannot have null values in
any tuple of r(R) because primary key values are
used to identify the individual tuples: t[PK]  null for
any tuple t in r(R)
 Note: Other attributes of R may be similarly
constrained to disallow null values, even though they
are not members of the primary key
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Referential Integrity
 A constraint involving two relations (the previous
constraints involve a single relation)
 Used to specify a relationship among tuples in two
relations: the referencing relation and the referenced
relation
 Tuples in the referencing relation R1 have attributes FK
(called foreign key attributes) that reference the primary
key attributes PK of the referenced relation R2. A tuple t1
in R1 is said to reference a tuple t2 in R2 if t1[FK] = t2[PK]
 A referential integrity constraint can be displayed in a
relational database schema as a directed arc from R1.FK
to R2
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Statement of the constraint
 The value in the foreign key column (or
columns) FK of the the referencing relation
R1 can be either:
 (1) a value of an existing primary key value of the
corresponding primary key PK in the referenced
relation R2,, or
 (2) a NULL
 In case (2), the FK in R1 should not be a part
of its own primary key
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Referential integrity constraints displayed on the
COMPANY relational database schema
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Other Types of Constraints
 Semantic Integrity Constraints:
- based on application semantics and cannot be
expressed by the model per se
- E.g., “the max. no. of hours per employee for all
projects he or she works on is 56 hrs per week”
- A constraint specification language may have to
be used to express these
- SQL-99 allows triggers and ASSERTIONS to
allow for some of these
 State/static constraints (so far)
 Transition/dynamic constraints: e.g., “the
salary of an employee can only increase”
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Update Operations on Relations
 INSERT a tuple
 DELETE a tuple
 MODIFY a tuple
 Integrity constraints should not be violated by

the update operations
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 Insertion: to insert a new tuple t into a relation
R. When inserting a new tuple, it should make
sure that the database constraints are not
violated:
 The value of an attribute should be of the correct data
type (i.e. from the appropriate domain).
 The value of a prime attribute (i.e. the key attribute)
must not be null
 The key value(s) must not be the same as that of an
existing tuple in the same relation
 The value of a foreign key (if any) must refer to an
existing tuple in the corresponding relation
 Options if the constraints are violated:
Homework !!
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 Deletion: to remove an existing tuple t from a
relation R. When deleting a tuple, the
following constraints must not be violated:
 The tuple must already exist in the database
 The referential integrity constraint is not violated
 Modification: to change values of some
attributes of an existing tuple t in a relation R
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 In case of integrity violation, several actions
can be taken:
 Cancel the operation that causes the violation
(REJECT option)
 Perform the operation but inform the user of the
violation
 Trigger additional updates so the violation is
corrected (CASCADE option, SET NULL option)
 Execute a user-specified error-correction routine
 Again, homework !!
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Contents

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Main Phases of Database Design
 Three main phases
 Conceptual database design
 Logical database design
 Physical database design
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A simplified diagram to illustrate
the main phases of database design
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 Conceptual database design
 The process of constructing a model of the data
used in an enterprise, independent of all physical
considerations
 Model comprises entity types, relationship types,
attributes and attribute domains, primary and
alternate keys, structural and integrity constraints
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 Logical database design
 The process of constructing a model of the data
used in an enterprise based on a specific data
model (e.g. relational), but independent of a
particular DBMS and other physical
considerations
 ER- & EER-to-Relational Mapping
 Normalization
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 Physical database design
 The process of producing a description of the
implementation of the database on secondary
storage; it describes the base relations, file
organizations, and indexes design used to
achieve efficient access to the data, and any
associated integrity constraints and security
measures
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The ERD for the COMPANY database
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Result of mapping the COMPANY ER schema
into a relational schema
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Contents

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ER- & EER-to-Relational Mapping
 ER-
 Step 1: Mapping of Regular Entity Types
 Step 2: Mapping of Weak Entity Types
 Step 3: Mapping of Binary 1:1 Relationship Types
 Step 4: Mapping of Binary 1:N Relationship Types
 Step 5: Mapping of Binary M:N Relationship Types
 Step 6: Mapping of Multivalued attributes
 Step 7: Mapping of N-ary Relationship Types
 EER-
 Step 8: Options for Mapping Specialization or
Generalization.
 Step 9: Mapping of Union Types (Categories)
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ER-to-Relational Mapping
 Step 1: Mapping of Regular (strong) Entity
Types
 Entity --> Relation
 Attribute of entity --> Attribute of relation
 Primary key of entity --> Primary key of relation
 Example: We create the relations EMPLOYEE,
DEPARTMENT, and PROJECT in the relational
schema corresponding to the regular entities in the ER
diagram. SSN, DNUMBER, and PNUMBER are the
primary keys for the relations EMPLOYEE,
DEPARTMENT, and PROJECT as shown
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Strong Entity
Types
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 Step 2: Mapping of Weak Entity Types
 For each weak entity type W in the ER schema with owner entity
type E, create a relation R and include all simple attributes (or
simple components of composite attributes) of W as attributes of
R
 In addition, include as foreign key attributes of R the primary key
attribute(s) of the relation(s) that correspond to the owner entity
type(s)
 The primary key of R is the combination of the primary key(s) of
the owner(s) and the partial key of the weak entity type W, if any
 Example: Create the relation DEPENDENT in this step to
correspond to the weak entity type DEPENDENT. Include the
primary key SSN of the EMPLOYEE relation as a foreign key
attribute of DEPENDENT (renamed to ESSN)
The primary key of the DEPENDENT relation is the combination
{ESSN, DEPENDENT_NAME} because DEPENDENT_NAME is
the partial key of DEPENDENT
 Note: CASCADE option as implemented
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Owner’s PK
PK
Weak Entity
Types Partial key
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 ER-
 Step 5: Mapping of Binary M:N Relationship
Types
 Transformation of binary relationships -
depends on functionality of relationship and
membership class of participating entity types
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 Mandatory membership class
 For two entity types E1 and E2: If E2 is a mandatory
member of an N:1 (or 1:1) relationship with E1, then
the relation for E2 will include the prime attributes of
E1 as a foreign key to represent the relationship
 1:1 relationship: If the membership class for E1 and
E2 are both mandatory, a foreign key can be used in
either relation
 N:1 relationship: If the membership class of E2, which
is at the N-side of the relationship, is optional (i.e.
partial), then the above guideline is not applicable
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DEPARTMENT OFFER MODULE
1 N
 Assume every module must be offered by a department,

then the entity type MODULE is a mandatory member
of the relationship OFFER. The relation for MODULE is:
MODULE(MDL-NUMBER, TITLE, TERM, ..., DNAME)
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Relationships
Types
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 Optional membership classes
 If entity type E2 is an optional member of the N:1
relationship with entity type E1 (i.e. E2 is at the N-
side of the relationship), then the relationship is
usually represented by a new relation containing
the prime attributes of E1 and E2, together with
any attributes of the relationship. The key of the
entity type at the N-side (i.e. E2) will become the
key of the new relation
 If both entity types in a 1:1 relationship have the
optional membership, a new relation is created
which contains the prime attributes of both entity
types, together with any attributes of the
relationship. The prime attribute(s) of either entity
type will be the key of the new relation
Jan - 2014 49
1 N
BORROWER ON_LOAN BOOK
 One possible representation of the relationship:

BORROWER(BNUMBER, NAME, ADDRESS, ...)
BOOK(ISBN, TITLE, ..., BNUMBER)
 A better alternative:
BORROWER(BNUMBER, NAME, ADDRESS, ...)
BOOK(ISBN, TITLE, ...)
ON_LOAN(ISBN, BNUMBER)
1:N (both optional)
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???
Jan - 2014 52
 N:M binary relationships:
 An N:M relationship is always represented by a
new relation which consists of the prime attributes
of both participating entity types together with any
attributes of the relationship
 The combination of the prime attributes will form
the primary key of the new relation
 Example: ENROL is an M:N relationship

between STUDENT and MODULE. To
represent the relationship, we have a new
relation:
ENROL(SNUMBER, MDL-NUMBER, DATE)
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M:N
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Jan - 2014 55
 Transformation of recursive/involuted relationships
 Relationship among different instances of the same entity
 The name(s) of the prime attribute(s) needs to be changed to reflect
the role each entity plays in the relationship
PERSON MARRY
M
1
PART COMPRISE
N
N
EMPLOYEE SUPERVISE
Jan - 2014 56
 Example 1: 1:1 involuted relationship, in
which the memberships for both entities are
optional
PERSON(ID, NAME, ADDRESS, ...)

MARRY(HUSBAND-ID, WIFE_ID,
DATE_OF_MARRIAGE)
Jan - 2014 57
 Example 2: 1:N involuted relationship
 If the relationship is mandatory or almost
mandatory:
EMPLOYEE(ID, ENAME, ..., SUPERVISOR_ID)
 If the relationship is optional:
EMPLOYEE(ID, ENAME, ...)
SUPERVISE(ID, START_DATE, ...,
SUPERVISOR_ID)
 Example 3: N:M involuted relationship

PART(PNUMBER, DESCRIPTION, ...)
COMPRISE( MAJOR-PNUMBER, MINOR-PNUMBER, QUANTITY)
Jan - 2014 58
 ER-
 Step 5: Mapping of Binary M:N Relationship
Types
Jan - 2014 59
 Step 6: Mapping of Multivalued attributes
 For each multivalued attribute A, create a new
relation R. This relation R will include an attribute
corresponding to A, plus the primary key attribute
K-as a foreign key in R-of the relation that
represents the entity type or relationship type that
has A as an attribute
 The primary key of R is the combination of A and
K. If the multivalued attribute is composite, we
include its simple components
Example: The relation DEPT_LOCATIONS is created. The
attribute DLOCATION represents the multivalued attribute
LOCATIONS of DEPARTMENT, while DNUMBER-as foreign
key-represents the primary key of the DEPARTMENT relation.
The primary key of R is the combination of {DNUMBER,
DLOCATION}
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Multivalued
Attribute
Jan - 2014 61
Jan - 2014 62
 Step 7: Mapping of N-ary Relationship Types
 For each n-ary relationship type R, where n>2, create
a new relationship S to represent R
 Include as foreign key attributes in S the primary keys
of the relations that represent the participating entity
types
 Also include any simple attributes of the n-ary
relationship type (or simple components of composite
attributes) as attributes of S
Example: The relationship type SUPPY in the ER below. This can
be mapped to the relation SUPPLY shown in the relational
schema, whose primary key is the combination of the three
foreign keys {SNAME, PARTNO, PROJNAME}
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Ternary relationship types: The SUPPLY relationship
Note: if the cardinality

constraint on any of the entity
types E participating in the
relationship is 1, the PK
should not include the FK
attributes that reference the
relation E’ corresponding to E
64
Correspondence between ER and Relational Models
ER Model Relational Model

Entity type “Entity” relation
1:1 or 1:N relationship type Foreign key (or “relationship” relation)
M:N relationship type “Relationship” relation & 2 foreign keys
n-ary relationship type “Relationship” relation & n foreign keys
Simple attribute Attribute
Composite attribute Set of simple component attributes
Multivalued attribute Relation and foreign key
Value set Domain
Key attribute Primary (or secondary) key
Jan - 2014 65
ER- & EER-to-Relational Mapping
 ER-
 Step 5: Mapping of Binary M:N Relationship Types
 EER-
 Step 8: Options for Mapping Specialization or
Generalization.
 Step 9: Mapping of Union Types (Categories)
Jan - 2014 66
EER-to-Relational Mapping
 Step8: Options for Mapping Specialization
or Generalization.
Convert each specialization with m subclasses {S1,
S2,….,Sm} and generalized superclass C, where
the attributes of C are {k,a1,…an} and k is the
(primary) key, into relational schemas using one of
the four following options:
 Option 8A: Multiple relations-Superclass and subclasses
 Option 8B: Multiple relations-Subclass relations only
 Option 8C: Single relation with one type attribute
 Option 8D: Single relation with multiple type attributes
Jan - 2014 67
67
 Option 8A: Multiple relations-Superclass and
subclasses
Create a relation L for C with attributes Attrs(L) = {k,a1,…an}
and PK(L) = k. Create a relation Li for each subclass Si, 1 < i
< m, with the attributesAttrs(Li) = {k} U {attributes of Si} and
PK(Li)=k. This option works for any specialization (total or
partial, disjoint or over-lapping).
 Option 8B: Multiple relations-Subclass relations only
Create a relation Li for each subclass Si, 1 < i < m, with the
attributes Attr(Li) = {attributes of Si} U {k,a1…,an} and PK(Li)
= k. This option only works for a specialization whose
subclasses are total (every entity in the superclass must
belong to (at least) one of the subclasses).
Jan - 2014 68
Example:
Option 8A
Jan - 2014 69
Example:
Option 8B
Tonnage
Jan - 2014 70
 Option 8C: Single relation with one type attribute
Create a single relation L with attributes Attrs(L) = {k,a1,…an} U
{attributes of S1} U…U {attributes of Sm} U {t} and PK(L) = k.
The attribute t is called a type (or discriminating) attribute that
indicates the subclass to which each tuple belongs. This
option works only for specialization whose subclass are
disjoint.
 Option 8D: Single relation with multiple type
attributes
Create a single relation schema L with attributes Attrs(L) =
{k,a1,…an} U {attributes of S1} U…U {attributes of Sm} U {t1,
t2,…,tm} and PK(L) = k. Each ti, 1 < I < m, is a Boolean type
attribute indicating whether a tuple belongs to the subclass Si.
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Example:
Option 8C
EmpType
Jan - 2014 72
Example:
Option 8D
Jan - 2014 73
 Mapping of Shared Subclasses (Multiple Inheritance)
 A shared subclass, such as STUDENT_ASSISTANT, is a
subclass of several classes, indicating multiple inheritance.
These classes must all have the same key attribute;
otherwise, the shared subclass would be modeled as a
category.
 We can apply any of the options discussed in Step 8 to a
shared subclass, subject to the restriction discussed in
Step 8 of the mapping algorithm. Below both 8C and 8D
are used for the shared class STUDENT_ASSISTANT.
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Example: Mapping
of Shared Subclasses
Jan - 2014 75
Example: Mapping of Shared Subclasses
Jan - 2014 76
 Step 9: Mapping of Union Types
(Categories).
 For mapping a category whose defining
superclass have different keys, it is customary to
specify a new key attribute, called a surrogate
key, when creating a relation to correspond to the
category.
 In the example below we can create a relation
OWNER to correspond to the OWNER category
and include any attributes of the category in this
relation. The primary key of the OWNER relation
is the surrogate key, which we called OwnerId.
Jan - 2014 77
Example: Mapping of Union Types
Contents

Jan - 2014 79
Jan - 2014 80
Exercise 1
Jan - 2014 81
Exercise 2
Jan - 2014 82
Review questions
1) Define the following terms as they apply to
the relational model of data: domain,
attribute, n-tuple, relation schema, relation
state, degree of a relation, relational
database schema, and relational database
state.
2) Discuss the entity integrity and referential
integrity constraints. Why is each
considered important?
Jan - 2014 83

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Chapter 4:

Relational Data Model and

1 Relational Data Model

1 Relational Data Model

Relational data model

Formal Terms Informal Terms

 Integrity constraints should not be violated by

1 Relational Data Model

1 Relational Data Model

 Assume every module must be offered by a department,

MODULE(MDL-NUMBER, TITLE, TERM, ..., DNAME)

 One possible representation of the relationship:

1:N (both optional)

 Example: ENROL is an M:N relationship

PERSON(ID, NAME, ADDRESS, ...)

 Example 3: N:M involuted relationship

Note: if the cardinality

ER Model Relational Model

1 Relational Data Model

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