Chapter 4

Enhanced Entity-Relationship
and UML Modeling

October 12, 2006 CH 4. Enhanced Entity-Relationship 1

 Why EER

 The ER modeling concepts are not sufficient for

representing new database applications, which have
more complex requirements than do the more traditional
applications.

 Additional semantic data modeling concepts must be

used to represent these requirements as accurately and
clearly as possible.

October 12, 2006 CH 4. Enhanced Entity-Relationship 2

 EER
 EER model concepts includes
– All modeling concepts of basic ER
– Additional concepts:
 subclasses/superclasses
 specialization/generalization
 categories (UNION types)
 attribute and relationship inheritance
– These are fundamental to conceptual modeling
 The additional EER concepts are used to model
applications more completely and more accurately
– EER includes some object-oriented concepts, such as
inheritance
October 12, 2006 CH 4. Enhanced Entity-Relationship 3
 EER Modeling

 Subclasses, Superclasses and Inheritance

 Specialization and Generalization
 Constraints and Characteristics of Specialization
and Generalization
 Modeling of UNION Types Using Categories

October 12, 2006 CH 4. Enhanced Entity-Relationship 4

 Subclasses and Superclasses
An entity type may have additional meaningful
subgroupings of its entities
SECRETARY

ENGINEER
EMPLOYEE
Superclasses: EMPLOYEE
TECHNICIAN Subclasses: SECRETARY, ENGINEER,
TECHNICIAN,
SALARIED_EMPLOYEE,
SALARIED_EMPLOYEE HOURLY_EMPLOYEE

HOURLY_EMPLOYEE

Every entity that is a member of one of these

subgroupings is also an employee

October 12, 2006 CH 4. Enhanced Entity-Relationship 5

 Example
Lname SSN
Fname Addr

DEPARTMENT WORKS EMPLOYEE

d
  d
 

TypingSpeed
EngType MANAGER 
TGrade HOURLY_EMP

SECRETARY TECHNICIAN ENGINEER SALARIED_EMP

EMPLOYEE: WORKS MANAGES BELONGS_TO

SECRETARY: WORKS
TECHNICIAN: WORKS
ENGINEER: WORKS
MANAGER: WORKS, MANAGES PROJECT TRADE_UNION
SALARIED_EMP: WORKS
HOURLY_EMP: WORKS, BELONGS_TO

October 12, 2006 CH 4. Enhanced Entity-Relationship 6

 Why class/subclass relationships and
specializations
 Certain attributes may apply to some but not all entities
of the superclass.
– A subclass is defined in order to group the entities to which
these attributes apply.
– The members of the subclass may still share the majority of their
attributes with the other members of the superclass.

EMPLOYEE (Name, SSN, BirthDate, Address)

SECRETARY (Name, SSN, BirthDate, Address, TypingSpeed)
ENGINEER (Name, SSN, BirthDate, Address, EngineerType)
TECHNICIAN (Name, SSN, BirthDate, Address, TGrade)

October 12, 2006 CH 4. Enhanced Entity-Relationship 7

 Why need class/subclass relationships
and specializations
 Some relationship types may be participated in only by
entities that are members of the subclass.

October 12, 2006 CH 4. Enhanced Entity-Relationship 8

 Subclasses vs. Superclasses

 The set of entities in each subclasses is a subset of the

entities that belong to EMPLOYEE
 Each is called a subclass of EMPLOYEE
 EMPLOYEE is the superclass for each of these
subclasses
 The relationship between a superclass and any one of its
subclass is called a superclass/subclass or
class/subclass relationship.
e.g., EMPLOYEE/SECRETARY and EMPLOYEE/TECHNICIAN are
two class/subclass relationships.

October 12, 2006 CH 4. Enhanced Entity-Relationship 9

 Properties of Superclasses and
Subclasses
 A member entity of the subclass represents the same
real-world entity as some member of the superclass.

 The subclass member is the same as the entity in the

superclass, but in a distinct specific role.

 When implementing a superclass/subclass relationship,

a member of the subclass may be represented as a
distinct database object – a distinct record that is
related via the key attribute to its superclass entity.

October 12, 2006 CH 4. Enhanced Entity-Relationship 10

 Properties of Superclasses and
Subclasses (cont.)
 An entity CANNOT exist in the DB merely by being a
member of a subclass. It must also be a member of
the superclass.
 An entity can be a member of more than one subclass.
– Example: A salaried employee who is also an engineer belongs to the
two subclasses ENGINEER and SALARIED_EMPLOYEE

 It is not necessary that every entity in a superclass be a

member of some subclass
– Example: A technical writer is an employee but does not belong to any
subclasses.

October 12, 2006 CH 4. Enhanced Entity-Relationship 11

 Type inheritance

 The type of an entity is defined by the attributes it

possesses and the relationship types which it
participates.
 An entity that is a member of a subclass inherits all the
attributes of the entity as a member of the superclass, as
well as all the relationships in which the superclass
participates.

October 12, 2006 CH 4. Enhanced Entity-Relationship 12

 Example
Lname SSN
Addr EMPLOYEE
Fname
Fname, Lname, SSN, Addr

SECRETARY
EMPLOYEE Fname, Lname, SSN, Addr TypingSpeed
TECHNICIAN
Fname, Lname, SSN, Addr, TGrade
d ENGINEER
Fname, Lname, SSN, Addr, EngType


TypingSpeed   EngType
TGrade

SECRETARY ENGINEER
TECHNICIAN

October 12, 2006 CH 4. Enhanced Entity-Relationship 13

 Example

DEPARTMENT WORKS EMPLOYEE

d
  d
 

TypingSpeed
EngType MANAGER 
TGrade HOURLY_EMP

SECRETARY TECHNICIAN ENGINEER SALARIED_EMP

Entity Type: Relationship Type MANAGES BELONGS_TO

EMPLOYEE: WORKS
SECRETARY: WORKS
TECHNICIAN: WORKS PROJECT TRADE_UNION
ENGINEER: WORKS
MANAGER: WORKS, MANAGES
SALARIED_EMP: WORKS
HOURLY_EMP: WORKS, BELONGS_TO
October 12, 2006 CH 4. Enhanced Entity-Relationship 14
 Specialization

 The process of defining a set of subclass of an entity

type (the superclass of the specialization).

 The set of subclasses that form a specialization is

defined on the basis of some distinguishing
characteristics of the entities in the superclass.
{SECRETARY, ENGINEER, TECHNICIAN} is a specialization of
EMPLOYEE based on the job type of each entity.

October 12, 2006 CH 4. Enhanced Entity-Relationship 15

 Specialization (cont.)

 The same entity type may have several specializations

based on different distinguishing characteristics.
 The EMPLOYEE entity type may have two
specializations:
– Based on the methods of pay:
{SALARIED_EMPLOYEE, HOURLY_EMPLOYEE}
– Based on the type of job:
{SECRETARY, ENGINEER, TECHNICIAN}
 A subclass can participate in specific relationship typ

October 12, 2006 CH 4. Enhanced Entity-Relationship 16

 Diagrammatically representation of
specialization in an EER diagram
…

Esuper

Specific attributes Specific attributes

 
…
…
E2
E1

October 12, 2006 CH 4. Enhanced Entity-Relationship 17

 Example
EMPLOYEE

d
  d
 

MANAGER 
HOURLY_EMP

SECRETARY TECHNICIAN ENGINEER SALARIED_EMP

MANAGES BELONGS_TO

PROJECT TRADE_UNION

October 12, 2006 CH 4. Enhanced Entity-Relationship 18

 Specialization

The specialization process allows us to do the following:

 Define a set of subclass of an entity type
 Establish additional specific attributes with each subclass
 Establish additional specific relationship types between
each subclass and other entity types or other subclasses

October 12, 2006 CH 4. Enhanced Entity-Relationship 19

 Generalization

 Generalization is the reverse of specialization process.

It defines a generalized entity type from the given entity
types.

October 12, 2006 CH 4. Enhanced Entity-Relationship 20

 Generalization (cont.)

NoOfPassengers LicensePlateNo NoOfAxies LicensePlateNo

MaxSpeed Tonnage
CAR Price TRUCK Price
VehicleID VehicleID

VehicleID Price LicensePlateNo

VEHICLE

d
NoOfPassengers
 NoOfAxies


MaxSpeed
CAR TRUCK Tonnage

October 12, 2006 CH 4. Enhanced Entity-Relationship 21

 Generalization (cont.)

 We can view {CAR, TRUCK} as a specialization of

VEHICLE
 Alternatively, we can view VEHICLE as a generalization
of CAR and TRUCK

October 12, 2006 CH 4. Enhanced Entity-Relationship 22

 Generalization (cont.)

 Generalization suppresses the difference among several

entity types, identifying their common features, and
generalize them into a single superclass of which the
original types are special subclasses.

 The decision as to which process, generalization or

specialization, is more appropriate in a particular
situation is often subjective.

October 12, 2006 CH 4. Enhanced Entity-Relationship 23

 Constraints on
Specialization/Generalization
 Disjointness vs. Overlap Constraints
 A total specialization vs. a partial specialization
 Specialization/Generalization hierarchies and lattices
 Utilizing specialization and generalization in Conceptual
Data Modeling

October 12, 2006 CH 4. Enhanced Entity-Relationship 24

 Disjointness Constraint

 Disjointness(d) constraint specifies that the

subclasses of the specialization must be disjointed (an
entity can be a member of at most one of the subclasses
of the specialization)

 In EER diagram, d in the circle stands for disjoint.

October 12, 2006 CH 4. Enhanced Entity-Relationship 25

 Example
Name SSN BirthDate Address

EMPLOYEE

d d


   
TypeSpeed TGrade EngType Salary PayScale

SECRETARY TECHNICIAN ENGINEER SALARIED_EMP HOURLY_EMP

Disjoint subclasses Disjoint subclasses

October 12, 2006 CH 4. Enhanced Entity-Relationship 26
 Overlap Constraint

 Overlap(o) specifies that the subclasses are not

constrained to be disjoint, i.e., the same (real-world)
entity may be a member of more than one subclass of
the specialization.
 Overlap is the default constraint and displayed by placing
an o in the circle.

October 12, 2006 CH 4. Enhanced Entity-Relationship 27

 Completeness constraint

Completeness constraint may be total or partial.

 A total specialization constraint specifies that every
entity in the superclass must be a member of some
subclass in the specialization.

 Represented by a double line connecting the superclass

to the circle.

October 12, 2006 CH 4. Enhanced Entity-Relationship 28

 Completeness constraint (cont.)

 A partial specialization allows an entity not to belong to

any of the subclasses, using a single line in EER.
e.g., if some EMPLOYEE entities, for example, sales
representatives, do not belong to any of the subclasses
{SECRETARY, ENGINEER, TECHNICIAN}, then the specialization
is partial.

 Represented by a single line connecting the superclass

to the circle.

October 12, 2006 CH 4. Enhanced Entity-Relationship 29

 Four Possible Constraints

 The disjointness and completeness constraints are

independent.
 There are four possible constraints on specialization:
– Disjoint, total
– Disjoint, partial
– Overlapping, total
– Overlapping, partial

October 12, 2006 CH 4. Enhanced Entity-Relationship 30

 Some insertion and deletion rules
applied to specialization/generalization
 Deleting an entity from a superclass implies that it is
automatically deleted from all the subclasses to which it
belongs
 Inserting an entity in a superclass implies that the entity
is mandatorily inserted in all applicable subclasses.
 Inserting an entity in a superclass of a total
specialization implies that the entity is mandatorily
inserted in at least one of the subclasses of the
specialization.

October 12, 2006 CH 4. Enhanced Entity-Relationship 31

 The differences between the
specialization and generalization
 The specialization process corresponds to a top-down
conceptual refinement process during conceptual
schema design.
– we typically start with an entity type and then define subclasses
of the entity type by successive specialization;
 The generalization process corresponds to a bottom-up
conceptual synthesis.
– we typically start with an entity type of subclasses and then
define superclasses of the entity type by successive
generalization.

October 12, 2006 CH 4. Enhanced Entity-Relationship 32

 Modeling of UNION Types Using
Categories
 It is possible that single superclass/subclass relationship
has more than one superclasses representing different
entity types. In this case, the subclass will represent a
collection of objects that is (a subset of) the UNION of
distinct entity types; we call such a subclass a union
type or a category.

 A category has two or more superclasses that may

represent distinct entity types, whereas non-categorty
superclass/subclass relationships always have a single
superclass.

October 12, 2006 CH 4. Enhanced Entity-Relationship 33

 Modeling of UNION Types Using Categories
(cont.)
Name BName BAddress
SSN Address CName CAddress
BANK
DriverLicenseNo PERSON COMPANY

U
U
LienOrRegular
OWNER

M PurchaseDate
OWNS
N
CModel REGISTERED_VEHICLE
TModel
CMake U
CYear TMake TYear Tonnage
CStyle
U

VehicelId CAR TRUCK VehicleId

October 12, 2006 CH 4. Enhanced Entity-Relationship 34

 Modeling of UNION Types Using
Categories (cont.)
 Two categories in car registration database.
– OWNER is a subclass of the union of PERSON, BANK, and
COMPANY
– REGISTRERED_VEHICLE is a subclass of the union of CAR
and TRUCK
 An entity that is a member of OWNER must exist in only
one of the superclass.
 Attribute inheritance works more selectively in the case
of categories.
e.g., each OWNER entity inherits the attributes of a COMPANY, a
PERSON, or a BANK, depending on the superclass to which the
entity belongs.
October 12, 2006 CH 4. Enhanced Entity-Relationship 35
 Partial vs. Total Categories
 A category can be total or partial
PERSON BANK

C1 C2

Partial U
category U
HAS_ BANK
ACCOUNT_ ACCT
HOLDER

BUILDING LOT

U
Total
category U
PROPERTY

October 12, 2006 CH 4. Enhanced Entity-Relationship 36

 A category Or A Specialization

 The superclass of a category may have different key attributes.

 If a category is total (not partial), it may be represented alternatively
as a specialization, and the choice of which representation to use is
subjective.

PROPERTY
BUILDING LOT

d
U
U

U
U
PROPERTY BUILDING LOT

Category Specialization
October 12, 2006 CH 4. Enhanced Entity-Relationship 37
 A category Or A Specialization (cont.)

 If the two classes represent the same type of entities and

share numerous attributes, including the same key
attributes, specialization/generalization is preferred;
otherwise, categorization is more appropriate.

October 12, 2006 CH 4. Enhanced Entity-Relationship 38