Balochistan University of Information Technology, Engineering & Management Sciences

Introduction to
Database Systems
Mohammad Imran
Lecturer
Department of Information Technology
Balochistan University of Information Technology, Engineering & Management Science

Introduction to Database Systems Spring 2015 Mohammad Imran April 13, 2015 1
 Balochistan University of Information Technology, Engineering & Management Sciences

Lecture 2
Database Design &
Data Modeling

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Why Database Design Is Important

• Database design focuses on design of database structure
used for end-user data
o Designer must identify database’s expected use
• Well-designed database:
o Facilitates data management
o Generates accurate and valuable information
• Poorly designed database:
o Causes difficult-to-trace errors
Introduction to Database Systems Spring 2015 Mohammad Imran April 13, 2015
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Database Modeling
• Database design focuses on how the database structure
will be used to store and manage end-user data
• Database Modeling is first step in designing a database
• Process of creating a specific data model for a determined
problem domain

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Data Modeling and Data Models

• Data models
o Relatively simple representations of complex real-world
data structures
• Often graphical
• Model: an abstraction of a real-world object or event
o Useful in understanding complexities of the real-world
environment
• Data modeling is iterative and progressive

Introduction to Database Systems Spring 2015 Mohammad Imran April 13, 2015
 Balochistan University of Information Technology, Engineering & Management Sciences

Why Data Modeling?

• Designers, programmers, and end users see data in
different ways
• Different views of the same data can lead to database
designs that do not reflect an organization’s actual
operation
• Failure to meet end-user needs and data efficiency
requirements
• Data model organizes data for various users
Introduction to Database Systems Spring 2015 Mohammad Imran April 13, 2015
 Balochistan University of Information Technology, Engineering & Management Sciences

Data Model Basic Building Blocks

• Entity: anything about which data are to be collected and
stored
• Attribute: a characteristic of an entity
• Relationship: describes an association among entities
o One-to-many (1:M) relationship
o Many-to-many (M:M) relationship
o One-to-one (1:1) relationship
• Constraint: a restriction placed on the data
Introduction to Database Systems Spring 2015 Mohammad Imran April 13, 2015
 Balochistan University of Information Technology, Engineering & Management Sciences

Business Rules
• Descriptions of policies, procedures, or principles within a
specific organization
o Apply to any organization that stores and uses data to
generate information
o Must be in written form and kept up to date
o Must be easy to understand and widely disseminated
• Describes characteristics of data as viewed by the
company

Introduction to Database Systems Spring 2015 Mohammad Imran April 13, 2015
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Sources of Business Rules

• Company managers
• Policy makers
• Department managers
• Written documentation
o Procedures, Standards, Operations manuals
• Direct interviews with end users

Introduction to Database Systems Spring 2015 Mohammad Imran April 13, 2015
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Translating Business Rules into

Data Model Components
• Nouns translate into entities
• Verbs translate into relationships among entities
• Relationships are bidirectional
• Two questions to identify the relationship type:
o How many instances of B are related to one instance of
A?
o How many instances of A are related to one instance of
B?

Introduction to Database Systems Spring 2015 Mohammad Imran April 13, 2015
 Balochistan University of Information Technology, Engineering & Management Sciences

Naming Conventions
• Naming occurs during translation of business rules to data
model components
• Names should make the object unique and distinguishable
from other objects
• Names should also be descriptive of objects in the
environment and be familiar to users
• Proper naming:
o Facilitates communication between parties
o Promotes self-documentation
Introduction to Database Systems Spring 2015 Mohammad Imran April 13, 2015
 Balochistan University of Information Technology, Engineering & Management Sciences

Levels of Data Modeling

• The three levels of data modeling
o Conceptual data model
o Logical data model
o Physical data model

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Conceptual Model
• A conceptual data model identifies the highest-level
relationships between the different entities
• Features of conceptual data model include:
o Important entities and the relationships among them
o No attribute is specified
o No primary key is specified
• It is input for Logical Data Model

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Conceptual Model
• Represents a global view of the entire database by the
entire organization
• Also known as a conceptual schema
• The most widely used conceptual model is the ER
model
• Remember that the ER model is illustrated
with the help of the ERD, which is effectively
the basic database blueprint

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Conceptual Model

Fig. Conceptual Model

Source: http://www.1keydata.com/datawarehousing/conceptual-data-model.html

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Logical Model
• Describes the data in as much detail as possible, without
concerning how they will be physical implemented in the
database
• Features of a logical data model include:
o Includes all entities and relationships among them
o All attributes for each entity are specified
o The primary key for each entity is specified
o Foreign keys (keys identifying the relationship between
different entities) are specified
o Normalization occurs at this level
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Logical Modeling Steps

• The steps for designing the logical data model are as
follows:
o Specify primary keys for all entities
o Find the relationships between different entities
o Find all attributes for each entity
o Normalization
• Logical Data Model is input for Physical Model

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 Balochistan University of Information Technology, Engineering & Management Sciences

Logical Model- An Example

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Difference between Logical and Conceptual Model

Concept Model
• No primary key is present
• No attributes are specified
within an entity
• Relationships are simply
stated, not specified
o we simply know that two
entities are related, but we do
not specify what attributes
are used for this relationship
Logical Model
• Primary keys are present
• Attributes are specified
within an entity
• Relationships between
entities are specified using
primary keys and foreign
keys

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Physical Data Model

• Represents how the model will be built in the database
• Shows all table structures, including field name, field data type, field
constraints, primary key, foreign key, and relationships between
tables
• Features of a physical data model include:
o Specification all tables and columns
o Foreign keys are used to identify relationships between tables
o Different for different RDBMS
• For example, data type for a column may be different between MySQL and
SQL Server

Fundamentals of Information Technology Spring 2015 Mohammad Imran

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Physical Data Modeling Steps

• The steps for physical data model design:
o Convert entities into tables
o Convert relationships into foreign keys
o Convert attributes into columns
o Modify the physical data model based on physical
constraints / requirements

Fundamentals of Information Technology Spring 2015 Mohammad Imran

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Physical Data Model - Example

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Difference between Logical and Physical Model

Logical Model Physical Model
• Entity Names • Entity names are now table
names
• Attributes • Attributes are now field
names
• Data types not specified • Data type for each column
is specified

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Conceptual, Logical and Physical Model

Bird’s Eye View
Feature Conceptual Logical Physical
Entity Names ✓ ✓
Entity Relationships ✓ ✓
Attributes ✓
Primary Keys ✓ ✓
Foreign Keys ✓ ✓
Table Names ✓
Column Names ✓
Column Data Types ✓

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Thank you

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Introduction to Database Systems Spring 2015 Mohammad Imran April 13, 2015