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Terms:
ERD - An Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD) is a snapshot of data structures. An Entity
Relationship Diagram shows entities (tables) in a database and relationships between tables
within that database. For a good database design it is essential to have an Entity Relationship
Diagram.
Entity - An entity is a thing or object of importance about which data must be captured.
All things aren't entitiesonly those about which information should be captured. Information
about an entity is captured in the form of attributes and/or relationships. If something is a
candidate for being an entity and it has no attributes or relationships, it isn't an entity. Database
entities appear in a data model as a box with a title. The title is the name of the entity.
Attribute An attribute property or characteristic. Color, for example, is an attribute of
your hair. In using or programming computers, an attribute is a changeable property or
characteristic of some component of a program that can be set to different values.
Relationship - Database relationships are very similar in that therere associations
between tables. There are three types of relationships: One-to-one, One-to-many, and Many-tomany.
Primary key- A table typically has a column or combination of columns that contain
values that uniquely identify each row in the table. This column, or columns, is called the
primary key (PK) of the table and enforces the entity integrity of the table. Because primary key
constraints guarantee unique data, they are frequently defined on an identity column.
Foreign key - A foreign key (FK) is a column or combination of columns that is used to
establish and enforce a link between the data in two tables to control the data that can be stored
in the foreign key table. In a foreign key reference, a link is created between two tables when the
column or columns that hold the primary key value for one table are referenced by the column or
columns in another table. This column becomes a foreign key in the second table.
Referential Integrity - Referential integrity is a database concept that ensures that
relationships between tables remain consistent. When one table has a foreign key to another
table, the concept of referential integrity states that you may not add a record to the table that
contains the foreign key unless there is a corresponding record in the linked table. It also
includes the techniques known as cascading update and cascading delete, which ensure that
changes made to the linked table are reflected in the primary table.

ERD