theory behind IDEF1X and ER

first of all, I like to take a closer look on my situation. As a student, I have to "design" a database, with around seven tables. Part of the design is theoretically, and it contains making an ER diagram and an IDEF1X diagram, and adding the three normalisation steps. We haven't seen the IDEF1X-system. I found helpfull information about how to draw it, but I do not understand what "parent", "child", and "identifying/non-identifying relationship" means. The teacher adviced us to use at least one "many-to-many" relation, as it would help us with the diagrams and normalisation (I don't know how, but that's what he said).

Now, I know that, between tables, there are relations, like "one car can only belong to one person", and "one writer could write multiple books"...

Can anyone explain me by example what the parent/child and the identifying/non-identifying thing is? My native language isn't english, that's why an example would make it more clear.

Thanks in advance,
me Received on Tue Apr 19 2005 - 18:48:20 CEST