In software engineering, an entity–relationship model (ER model) is a data model for describing the data or information aspects of a business domain or its process requirements, in an abstract way that lends itself to ultimately being implemented in a database such as a relational database. The main components of ER models are entities (things) and the relationships that can exist among them.
Entity–relationship modeling was developed by Peter Chen and published in a 1976 paper.[1] However, variants of the idea existed previously,[2] and have been devised subsequently such as supertype and subtype data entities[3] and commonality relationships.
Introduction : An entity–relationship model is a systematic way of describing and defining a business process. The process is modeled as components (entities) that are linked with each other by relationships that express the dependencies and requirements between them, such as: one building may be divided into zero or more apartments, but one apartment can only be located in one building. Entities may have various properties (attributes) that characterize them. Diagrams created to represent these entities, attributes, and relationships graphically are called entity–relationship diagrams.
An ER model is typically implemented as a database. In the case of a relational database, which stores data in tables, every row of each table represents one instance of an entity. Some data fields in these tables point to indexes in other tables; such pointers represent the relationships.
The three schema approach to software engineering uses three levels of ER models that may be developed.
Conceptual data model
This is the highest level ER model in that it contains the least granular detail but establishes the overall scope of what is to be included within the model set. The conceptual ER model normally defines master reference data entities that are commonly used by the organization. Developing an enterprise-wide conceptual ER model is useful to support documenting the data architecture for an organization.
A conceptual ER model may be used as the foundation for one or more logical data models (see below). The purpose of the conceptual ER model is then to establish structural metadata commonality for the master data entities between the set of logical ER models. The conceptual data model may be used to form commonality relationships between ER models as a basis for data model integration.
Logical data model
A logical ER model does not require a conceptual ER model, especially if the scope of the logical ER model includes only the development of a distinct information system. The logical ER model contains more detail than the conceptual ER model. In addition to master data entities, operational and transactional data entities are now defined. The details of each data entity are developed and the entity relationships between these data entities are established. The logical ER model is however developed independent of technology into which it is implemented.
Physical data model
One or more physical ER models may be developed from each logical ER model. The physical ER model is normally developed to be instantiated as a database. Therefore, each physical ER model must contain enough detail to produce a database and each physical ER model is technology dependent since each database management system is somewhat different.
The physical model is normally instantiated in the structural metadata of a database management system as relational database objects such as database tables, database indexes such as unique key indexes, and database constraints such as a foreign key constraint or a commonality constraint. The ER model is also normally used to design modifications to the relational database objects and to maintain the structural metadata of the database.
The first stage of information system design uses these models during the requirements analysis to describe information needs or the type of information that is to be stored in a database. The data modeling technique can be used to describe any ontology (i.e. an overview and classifications of used terms and their relationships) for a certain area of interest. In the case of the design of an information system that is based on a database, the conceptual data model is, at a later stage (usually called logical design), mapped to a logical data model, such as the relational model; this in turn is mapped to a physical model during physical design. Note that sometimes, both of these phases are referred to as "physical design". It is also used in database management system.
