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In database theory, a relation, as originally defined by E. F. Codd, [1] is a set of tuples (d 1,d 2,...,d n), where each element d j is a member of D j, a data domain. Codd's original definition notwithstanding, and contrary to the usual definition in mathematics, there is no ordering to the elements of the tuples of a relation.
The relational algebra uses set union, set difference, and Cartesian product from set theory, and adds additional constraints to these operators to create new ones.. For set union and set difference, the two relations involved must be union-compatible—that is, the two relations must have the same set of attributes.
Consequently, the ER model becomes an abstract data model, [1] that defines a data or information structure that can be implemented in a database, typically a relational database. Entity–relationship modeling was developed for database and design by Peter Chen and published in a 1976 paper, [2] with variants of the idea existing previously. [3]
The entity–relationship model proposes a technique that produces entity–relationship diagrams (ERDs), which can be employed to capture information about data model entity types, relationships and cardinality. A Crow's foot shows a one-to-many relationship. Alternatively a single line represents a one-to-one relationship. [4]
This is also called a foreign key constraint, which is important to keep data from being duplicated and have relationships within the database stay reliable as more information is added. Many-to-many relationships are not able to be used in relational databases and must be converted to one-to-many relationships.
For example, think of A as Authors, and B as Books. An Author can write several Books, and a Book can be written by several Authors. In a relational database management system, such relationships are usually implemented by means of an associative table (also known as join table, junction table or cross-reference table), say, AB with two one-to-many relationships A → AB and B → AB.
A data type in a relational database might be the set of integers, the set of character strings, the set of dates, etc. The relational model does not dictate what types are to be supported. Attributes are commonly represented as columns, tuples as rows, and relations as tables. A table is specified as a list of column definitions, each of which ...
An associative entity is a term used in relational and entity–relationship theory. A relational database requires the implementation of a base relation (or base table) to resolve many-to-many relationships. A base relation representing this kind of entity is called, informally, an associative table. An associative entity (using Chen notation)