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An entity, strictly speaking, is an instance of a given entity-type. There are usually many instances of an entity-type. Because the term entity-type is somewhat cumbersome, most people tend to use the term entity as a synonym. Entities can be thought of as nouns. [7] Examples include a computer, an employee, a song, or a mathematical theorem.
Thus, the "relation" in "relational database" refers to the various tables in the database; a relation is a set of tuples. The columns enumerate the various attributes of the entity (the employee's name, address or phone number, for example), and a row is an actual instance of the entity (a specific employee) that is represented by the relation.
A database object is a structure for storing, managing and presenting application- or user-specific data in a database. Depending on the database management system (DBMS), many different types of database objects can exist. [1] [2] The following is a list of the most common types of database objects found in most relational databases (RDBMS):
In this example, the three lines next to the song entity indicate that an artist can have many songs. The two vertical lines next to the artist entity indicate songs can only have one performer. In the real world, data modeling is critical because as the data grows voluminous, tables linked by keys must be used to speed up programmed retrieval ...
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)
Formally, a "database" refers to a set of related data accessed through the use of a "database management system" (DBMS), which is an integrated set of computer software that allows users to interact with one or more databases and provides access to all of the data contained in the database (although restrictions may exist that limit access to particular data).
The foreign key is typically a primary key of an entity it is related to. The foreign key is an attribute of the identifying (or owner, parent, or dominant) entity set. Each element in the weak entity set must have a relationship with exactly one element in the owner entity set, [1] and therefore, the relationship cannot be a many-to-many ...
A Data (Entity A) could be Sent (Relationship Name) to a Monitor (Entity B) or a Printer (Entity C) to be shown. In this case, the relationship between the Monitor and Printer at one side and Data at the other side is an Exclusive Relationship. Of course it is assumed that Data could be sent to only one of the targets at a time, not to both.