Jyoti Seoparsan

CSC602
October 15th, 2008
Assignment #4

P. 129, #1
Define each of the following term:
Entity type- is a collection of entities that divide equally common properties or
characteristics.
Entity-relationship model- is a granular logical representation of the data for a
business.
Entity instance- this is a single encounter of an entity type.
Attribute- these are characteristics of an entity or relationship type that is of interest
for the business.
Relationship type- this is a significant relation between or among entity types
Identifier- this is where no two instances of an entity type can have the same value
for identifier attribute. This is an attribute that sets apart itself with individual
instances of an entity type.
Associative entity- this is an entity type that connects the instances of one or more
entity types and holds attributes that are distinctive to relationship between those
entity instances.
Cardinality constraint- details the amount of instances of one entity that can be
associated with each occurrence of another entity.
Weak entity- can only exist by some other entity type.
Identifying relationship- this is the relationship between a weak entity and its owner.
Derived attribute- this is an attribute whose values can be determined from related
attributes.
Multivalued attribute- this is an attribute that may take on more than one for a given
entity instance.
Business rule- it is a statement that defines or bonds some aspect of the business.

P. 130, #3
 Contrast the following terms:
Stored attribute; derived attribute- attribute values that are calculated by other
attribute values stored in the database/an attribute whose values can be calculated
by related attribute values.
Simple attribute; composite attribute – cannot be broken into smaller parts that
are meaningful/has meaningful components.
Entity type; relationship type- a group of entities that share common
characteristics/a significant relation among entity types.
Strong entity type; weak entity type- exist independently of other entities/needs
another entity to exist.
Degree; cardinality-amount of entity types that partake in that
relationship/attribute(s) that distinctly identifies a row in a relation.
Required attribute; optional attribute- an attribute has to exist for each
entity/attribute that does not have a value.
Composite attribute; multi-valued attribute – attribute that has meaningful
components/attribute that can have more than one value for a given entity
instance.

P. 130, #7
State the six general guidelines for naming data objects in a data model.
• Relate to business, not Technical (Hardware or Software) characteristics.
Using a Customers name would be good rather than a file extension name for
example.
• Be meaningful or self documenting, do not use generic words; be specific.
• Be unique, naming should show a distinction with other data objects that may
be similar.
• Be readable; make it easily identifiable when a user looks at the name of the
data object. For example, EmployeeBirthDate is more specific than
BirthDate.
 • Be composed of words taken from an approved list; an organization usually
chooses their own vocabulary where important words in data names are
chosen.
• Be repeatable; there should be a known hierarchy of for names. Example of
this would be, SchoolAddress, HomeAddress and WorkAddress.

P. 130, #10
List the four types of cardinality constraints, and draw an example of each.
Minimum Cardinality:
Maximum Cardinality:
Optional Cardinality:
Mandatory Cardinality:

P. 130, #14
Give an example of each of the following, other than described in this chapter.
a. Ternary relationship-
b. Unary relationship -

P. 130, #20
Explain the distinction between entity type and entity instance.
An entity type is a collection of events of entities that have similar properties,
Where as, an entity instance is a single event of an entity.

P. 131, #3
There is a bulleted list associated with Figure 3-22 that describes the entities and
their relationships in Pine Valley Furniture. For each of the ten points in the list,
identify the subset of Figure 3-22 described by that point.
P. 131, #4a Draw ERD of the following situation.

A company has a number of employees. The attributes of EMPLOYEE include

Employee_ID (identifier), Name, Address, and Birthdate. The company also has several
projects. Attributes of PROJECT include Project_ID, (identifier), Project_Name, and
Start_Date. Each employee may not be assigned to ono or more projects, or may not be
assigned to a project. A project must have at least one employee assigned and may have
any number of employees assigned. An employee’s billing rate may vary by project, and
the company wishes to record the applicable billing rate (Billing_Rate) for each
employee when assigned to a particular project. Do the attribute names in this
description follow the guidelines fro naming attributes? If not, suggest better names.

P. 131, #4b

A university has a large number of courses in its catalog. Attributes of COURSE include
Course_Number (identifier), Course_Name, and Units. Each course may have one or
more different courses as prerequisites or may have no prerequisites. Similarly, a
particular course may be a prerequisite for any number of courses or may not be
prerequisite for any other course. Provide a good definition of COURSE. Why is your
definition a good one?

Based on NBD P. 37 create an order entry database system. No user interface is

required but you can do one if you wish.
The system should be able to:
Insert records
Update records
Delete records
Create index
Delete index
Delete table