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International Conference on Conceptual Modeling

ER 1994: Entity-Relationship Approach — ER '94 Business Modelling and Re-Engineering pp 420–436Cite as

Leveled entity relationship model

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 881))

Abstract

Layering ER diagrams has been a key tool to abstract the complexity of large data schemas generated by enterprise modeling. However, the current approaches have a certain impedance between successive steps of refining (or abstracting) ER diagrams. First, most approaches do not have a well-defined correspondence between an entity at a higher level and the entity cluster at a lower level. Second, a relationship to a subentity from an entity in a higher plane is modeled using a relationship which breaks the encapsulation of the entity which contains the subentity. Clearly, it would be nice to have non-encroaching relationships to model such situations. Finally, a refinement (abstraction) step adds (deletes) encroaching relationships and thus cascades changes to the schema beyond the current entity being refined (entity cluster being abstracted).

This paper presents the Leveled Entity Relationship Model which demonstrates how one may have an abstraction formalism which does satisfy the above properties.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Computer Science Department, Indiana University, 47405, Bloomington, IN

    Munish Gandhi, Edward L. Robertson & Dirk Van Gucht

Authors
  1. Munish Gandhi
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  2. Edward L. Robertson
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  3. Dirk Van Gucht
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Editor information

Pericles Loucopoulos

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© 1994 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Gandhi, M., Robertson, E.L., Van Gucht, D. (1994). Leveled entity relationship model. In: Loucopoulos, P. (eds) Entity-Relationship Approach — ER '94 Business Modelling and Re-Engineering. ER 1994. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 881. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-58786-1_94

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-58786-1_94

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-58786-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-49100-2

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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