Re: What is a Relationship !?
Date: Thu, 20 Nov 2003 21:14:42 +0200
Message-ID: <bpj3us$ebb$1_at_nyytiset.pp.htv.fi>
>An entity is an object that exists and is distinguishable from other
>objects. For instance, John Harris with S.I.N. 890-12-3456 is an entity, as
>he can be uniquely identified as one particular person in the universe.
>
>This is a pretty common notion. An entity exists in the real world and has
>a unique identifier. A relationship on the other hand is some subset of the
>power set of entities, or as DSS defines it: A relationship is an
>association between several entities.
>
>Typically, relationships are identified by the identifiers of the entities
>that fill key roles in the relationship, not by any unique identifier of
>their own. However, relationships do often have additional attributes over
>and above their member attributes.
>
By that definition most of the relations in a database could be
classified as relationships, I guess...
And, further, a relationship could become an entity just by giving it a
unique identifier.
Take for example
person(person_id, person_name, etc...)
company(company_id, company_name, etc...)
job(person_id, company_id, etc...) //current job(s) of person
Now would 'job' be an entity or a relationship?
job(person_id, company_id, start_date, etc...) //job history of person
What if I add a surrogate key?
job(job_id, person_id, company_id, start_date, etc...) //job history of person
Is this an entity or a relationship?
Even if a distinction could be made between these cases, what purpose
would it
serve? What do we care if 'job' is called a relationship or an entity?
best regards,
Lauri Pietarinen
Received on Thu Nov 20 2003 - 20:14:42 CET