THE ENHANCED E-R MODEL

Modern Database Management

11th Edition
Jeffrey A. Hoffer, V. Ramesh,
Heikki Topi

© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

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 OBJECTIVES
 Define terms
 Understand use of supertype/subtype relationships
 Understand use of specialization and generalization techniques
 Specify completeness and disjointness constraints
 Develop supertype/subtype hierarchies for realistic business
situations
 Develop entity clusters

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 SUPERTYPES AND SUBTYPES
 Enhanced ER model: extends original ER model with
new modeling constructs
 Subtype: A subgrouping of the entities in an entity type that
has attributes distinct from those in other subgroupings
 Supertype: A generic entity type that has a relationship with
one or more subtypes
 Attribute Inheritance:
 Subtype entities inherit values of all attributes of the
supertype
 An instance of a subtype is also an instance of the supertype

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 Figure 3-1 Basic notation for supertype/subtype notation

a) EER

notation

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 Figure 3-1 Basic notation for supertype/subtype notation (cont.)

b) Microsoft
Visio
Notation

Different modeling tools may have different notation for the same
modeling constructs.

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 Figure 3-2 Employee supertype with three subtypes

All employee subtypes

will have employee
number, name, address,
and date hired

Each employee subtype

will also have its own
attributes

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 RELATIONSHIPS AND SUBTYPES
 Relationships at the supertype level indicate that
all subtypes will participate in the relationship
 The instances of a subtype may participate in a
relationship unique to that subtype. In this
situation, the relationship is shown at the subtype
level

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Figure 3-3 Supertype/subtype relationships in a hospital

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GENERALIZATION AND SPECIALIZATION

 Generalization: The process of defining a

more general entity type from a set of more
specialized entity types. BOTTOM-UP
 Specialization: The process of defining
one or more subtypes of the supertype and
forming supertype/subtype relationships.
TOP-DOWN

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 Figure 3-4 Example of generalization
a) Three entity types: CAR, TRUCK, and MOTORCYCLE

All these types of vehicles have common attributes

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 Figure 3-4 Example of generalization (cont.)
b) Generalization to VEHICLE supertype

So we put
the shared
attributes in
a supertype

Note: no subtype for motorcycle, since it has no unique

attributes
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 Figure 3-5 Example of specialization
a) Entity type PART

Only applies to
manufactured parts

Applies only to purchased parts

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 Figure 3-5 Example of specialization (cont.)
b) Specialization to MANUFACTURED PART and PURCHASED PART

Created 2
subtypes

Note: multivalued composite attribute was replaced

by an associative entity relationship to another entity
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CONSTRAINTS IN SUPERTYPE/SUBTYPE
RELATIONSHIPS
 Completeness Constraints: Whether
an instance of a supertype must also be a
member of at least one subtype
 Total Specialization Rule: Yes (double line)
 Partial Specialization Rule: No (single line)

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 Figure 3-6 Examples of completeness constraints
a) Total specialization rule

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 Figure 3-6 Examples of completeness constraints (cont.)
b) Partial specialization rule

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CONSTRAINTS IN SUPERTYPE/SUBTYPE
RELATIONSHIPS
 Disjointness Constraints: Whether an
instance of a supertype may simultaneously
be a member of two (or more) subtypes
 Disjoint Rule: An instance of the supertype can
be only ONE of the subtypes
 Overlap Rule: An instance of the supertype
could be more than one of the subtypes

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 Figure 3-7 Examples of disjointness constraints
a) Disjoint rule

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 Figure 3-7 Examples of disjointness constraints (cont.)
b) Overlap rule

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 CONSTRAINTS IN SUPERTYPE/SUBTYPE
RELATIONSHIPS
 Subtype Discriminator: An attribute of the
supertype whose values determine the target
subtype(s)
 Disjoint – a simple attribute with alternative values to
indicate the possible subtypes
 Overlapping – a composite attribute whose subparts
pertain to different subtypes. Each subpart contains a
Boolean value to indicate whether or not the instance
belongs to the associated subtype
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Figure 3-8 Introducing a subtype discriminator (disjoint rule)

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 Figure 3-9 Subtype discriminator (overlap rule)

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 Figure 3-10 Example of supertype/subtype hierarchy

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 ENTITY CLUSTERS
 EER diagrams are difficult to read when
there are too many entities and relationships.
 Solution: Group entities and relationships
into entity clusters.
 Entity cluster: Set of one or more entity
types and associated relationships grouped
into a single abstract entity type

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Figure 3-13a
Possible entity
clusters for Pine
Valley Furniture in
Microsoft Visio

Related
groups of
entities could
become
clusters

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 Figure 3-13b EER diagram of PVF entity clusters

More readable,
isn’t it?

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 Figure 3-14 Manufacturing entity cluster

Detail for a single cluster

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 PACKAGED DATA MODELS

 Predefined data models

 Could be universal or industry-specific
 Universal data model = a generic or
template data model that can be reused as a
starting point for a data modeling project
(also called a “pattern”)

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 ADVANTAGES OF PACKAGED DATA
MODELS
 Use proven model components
 Save time and cost
 Less likelihood of data model errors
 Easier to evolve and modify over time
 Aid in requirements determination
 Easier to read
 Supertype/subtype hierarchies promote reuse
 Many-to-many relationships enhance model flexibility
 Vendor-supplied data model fosters integration with vendor’s
applications
 Universal models support inter-organizational systems

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