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Entity Relationship Model

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  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Database Systems

  • 244 Accesses

Synonyms

Entity-relationship model; ER Model; ERM

Definition

The entity relationship model (ERM) is a conceptual model that represents the information structure of a problem domain in terms of entities and relationships. The result of modeling using the ERM is graphically represented as an entity relationship diagram (ERD). Thus, an ERD represents the conceptual structure of a problem domain being modeled. ERDs are widely used in database design and systems analysis to capture requirements of a system or a problem domain. In particular, when used for data modeling, the ERD assists the database designer in identifying both the data and the rules that are represented and used in a database. ERDs are readily translated into relational database schemas.

Historical Background

The ERM was introduced by Peter Chen in 1976 [2]. The ERM and its variations have been widely used in database modeling and design, systems analysis and design methodologies, computer-aided software engineering (CASE)...

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Recommended Reading

  1. Batini C, Ceri S, Navathe SB. Conceptual database design: an entity-relationship approach. Reading: Benjamin/Cummings; 1991.

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  2. Chen PP. The entity relationship model – toward a unified view of data. ACM Trans Database Sys. 1976;1(1):9–36.

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  3. Chen PP. English sentence structure and entity relationship diagrams. Inf Sci. 1983;29(2–3):127–49.

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  4. Chen PP. Entity-relationship modeling: historical events, future trends, and lessons learned. In: Broy M, Denert E, editors. Software pioneers: contributions to software engineering. New York: Springer; 2002. p. 100–14.

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  5. Dullea J, Song I-Y, Lamprou I. An analysis of structural validity in entity-relationship modeling. Data Knowl Eng. 2003;47(3):167–205.

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  6. Elmasri R, Navathe S. Fundamentals of database systems. 5th ed. Reading: Benjamin/Cummings; 2007.

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  7. ER conferences. Available at: http://conceptualmodeling.org

  8. Ling TW. A normal form for entity-relationship diagrams. In: Proceedings of 4th International Conference on Entity-Relationship Approach. IEEE Computer Society; 1985. p. 24–35.

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  9. Song I-Y, Evans M, Park EK. A comparative analysis of entity-relationship diagrams. J Comput Softw Eng. 1995;3(4):427–59.

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  10. Teorey TJ, Yang D, Fry JP. A logical design methodology for relational databases using the extended entity-relationship model. Comput Surv. 1986;18(12):197–222.

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  11. Teorey TJ, Lightstone SS, Nadeau T. Database modeling & design: logical design. 4th ed. San Francisco: Morgan Kauffman; 2005.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Computing and Informatics, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Il-Yeol Song

  2. Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, USA

    Peter P. Chen

Authors
  1. Il-Yeol Song
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  2. Peter P. Chen
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Il-Yeol Song .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Georgia Institute of Technology College of Computing, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Ling Liu

  2. University of Waterloo School of Computer Science, Waterloo, ON, Canada

    M. Tamer Özsu

Section Editor information

  1. Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, USA

    David W. Embley

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Song, IY., Chen, P.P. (2018). Entity Relationship Model. In: Liu, L., Özsu, M.T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Database Systems. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-8265-9_148

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