An approach for decomposing N-ary data relationships

✍ Scribed by Andrew J. McAllister; David Sharpe

• Book ID: 101239687
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 344 KB
• Volume: 28
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0038-0644
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1097-024x(199802)28:2<125::aid-spe146>3.0.co;2-6

✦ Synopsis

One of the most significant challenges in the use of entity relationship data models is in deciding whether to use a single relationship between several entities or a set of simpler relationships to represent a complex association. A practical eight-step approach is presented for analysis of n-ary relationships and decomposition into simpler relationships where appropriate. Relational database design concepts form the basis for this approach. An extended specification of cardinality constraints is used to support the decomposition approach and to ensure applicability to a variety of modeling styles. This approach defines a fundamental analysis skill for data modeling practitioners.