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The vector stencils library "ERD, Chen's notation" contains 13 ERD elements.
Use it for drawing ER-diagrams using Chen's notation in the ConceptDraw PRO diagramming and vector drawing software extended with the Entity-Relationship Diagram (ERD) solution from the Software Development area of ConceptDraw Solution Park.
Entity
Entity, entity,
Weak entity
Weak entity, weak entity,
Relationship
Relationship, relationship,
Identifying Relationship
Identifying Relationship, identifying relationship,
Associative Entity
Associative Entity, associative entity,
Participation
Participation,
Optional participation
Optional participation,
Recursive Relationship
Recursive Relationship,
Attribute
Attribute, attribute,
Key attribute
Key attribute, key attribute,
Weak key attribute
Weak key attribute, weak key attribute,
Derived attribute
Derived attribute, derived attribute,
Multivalue attribute
Multivalue attribute, multivalue attribute,
Used Solutions

ERD Symbols and Meanings

ERD Symbols and Meanings
Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD) is a popular software engineering tool for database modeling and illustration the logical structure of databases, which uses one of two notations - Chen's or Crow’s Foot. Crow's foot notation is effective when used in software engineering, information engineering, structured systems analysis and design. Each of these notations applies its own set of ERD symbols. Crow's foot diagrams use boxes to represent entities and lines between these boxes to show relationships. Varied shapes at the ends of lines depict the cardinality of a given relationship. Chen's ERD notation is more detailed way to represent entities and relationships. ConceptDraw DIAGRAM application enhanced with all-inclusive Entity-Relationship Diagram (ERD) solution allows design professional ER diagrams with Chen's or Crow’s Foot notation on your choice. It contains the full set of ready-to-use standardized ERD symbols and meanings helpful for quickly drawing, collection of predesigned ERD samples, examples and templates. ConceptDraw Pro is a great alternative to Visio for Mac users as it offers more features and can easily handle the most demanding professional needs.
How to Build an Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD)
How to Build an Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD)
The vector stencils library "ERD, Chen's notation" contains 13 ERD elements.
Use it for drawing ER-diagrams using Chen's notation in the ConceptDraw PRO diagramming and vector drawing software extended with the Entity-Relationship Diagram (ERD) solution from the Software Development area of ConceptDraw Solution Park.
Entity
Entity, entity,
Weak entity
Weak entity, weak entity,
Relationship
Relationship, relationship,
Identifying Relationship
Identifying Relationship, identifying relationship,
Associative Entity
Associative Entity, associative entity,
Participation
Participation,
Optional participation
Optional participation,
Recursive Relationship
Recursive Relationship,
Attribute
Attribute, attribute,
Key attribute
Key attribute, key attribute,
Weak key attribute
Weak key attribute, weak key attribute,
Derived attribute
Derived attribute, derived attribute,
Multivalue attribute
Multivalue attribute, multivalue attribute,
Used Solutions

ConceptDraw DIAGRAM ER Diagram Tool

Entity-relationship model, also called ER-model, is the main tool of domain modeling on the stage of conceptual design. The modeling of domain data structures is based on the use of graphical tools - Entity-Relationship diagrams (ER-diagrams). The core concepts of ER-Diagram are entity, attribute and relationship. ER-diagram lets visually represent the entities, helps effectively document all properties of designed system and to detail the data storages. To represent the elements at ER-model are commonly used Chen’s notation and Crow’s foot notation, each has its pros and cons. The entity on ER-diagram is represented in the form of rectangle, which specifies its name. An attribute is a property of the entity and relationship is an interaction between the entities. The relationship between two entities is called binary, between more than two entities - ternary. Specific software, such as ConceptDraw DIAGRAM with Entity-Relationship Diagram (ERD) solution from ConceptDraw Solution Park is helpful for easy creation Entity-Relationship Diagrams.
"Chen's notation for entity–relationship modeling uses rectangles to represent entity sets, and diamonds to represent relationships appropriate for first-class objects: they can have attributes and relationships of their own. If an entity set participates in a relationship set, they are connected with a line.
Attributes are drawn as ovals and are connected with a line to exactly one entity or relationship set.
Cardinality constraints are expressed as follows:
- a double line indicates a participation constraint, totality or surjectivity: all entities in the entity set must participate in at least one relationship in the relationship set;
- an arrow from entity set to relationship set indicates a key constraint, i.e. injectivity: each entity of the entity set can participate in at most one relationship in the relationship set;
- a thick line indicates both, i.e. bijectivity: each entity in the entity set is involved in exactly one relationship.
- an underlined name of an attribute indicates that it is a key: two different entities or relationships with this attribute always have different values for this attribute.
Attributes are often omitted as they can clutter up a diagram; other diagram techniques often list entity attributes within the rectangles drawn for entity sets." [Entity–relationship model. Wikipedia]
The vector stencils library ERD, Chen's notation contains 13 symbols for drawing entity-relatinship diagrams using the ConceptDraw PRO diagramming and vector drawing software.
The example "Design elements - ER diagram (Chen notation)" is included in the Chen Notation solution from the Software Development area of ConceptDraw Solution Park.
Chen's ERD
Chen's ERD, weak key attribute, weak entity, relationship, recursive relationship, participation, optional participation, multivalued attribute, key attribute, identifying relationship, entity, derived attribute, attribute, associative entity,
Used Solutions

Entity Relationship Diagram Examples

Entity Relationship Diagram Examples
Creation of Entity-Relationship (ER) model is a visual representation the structure of a business database, where data equates to entities or objects, which are linked by defined relationships expressing dependencies and requirements. By the nature, the ER model is an abstract visualization, a first step in design process towards creating a logical and functional database. ConceptDraw DIAGRAM professional software gives the ability to effectively describe a database using the Entity-Relationship model. Included to ConceptDraw Solution Park, the Entity-Relationship Diagram (ERD) solution contains the set of predesigned vector icons advocated by Chen's and Crow’s Foot notations that both can be used for data modeling and describing a database. Entity-Relationship Diagram (ERD) solution includes also helpful templates and incredibly large collection of varied Entity Relationship Diagram examples and samples offered at ConceptDraw STORE. Each of them can be used to develop your own model of a database of arbitrary complexity.
How to Build an Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD)
How to Build an Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD)

Data modeling with ConceptDraw DIAGRAM

Data modelling will help you to study and analyze business processes in your organization for optimization and increase of effectiveness and production.

Components of ER Diagram

Entity-Relationship model gives the possibility to visually describe a database using the components of ER Diagram, entity relationship stencils, relationship symbols, work flow shapes. ER-diagram lets represent the data or entities, attributes of these entities and relationships between them, using standardized Crow’s Foot notation icons or Chen’s notation icons. An entity is an object of the real world, it can exist independently and has the instances which differ in attribute values (properties). The attributes give an unambiguous (uniquely) identification for the instance and are called the primary key, this key can be composite and combine several attributes. ConceptDraw DIAGRAM is a professional software available with Entity-Relationship Diagram (ERD) solution from Software Development area that lets create ERDs for various database systems, using Crow’s Foot and Chen’s notations. It is invaluable tool for software engineers and developers, it supports ODBC-compatible databases (Oracle, MySQL, MS Access, MS SQL, InterBase, Firebird and others).

ConceptDraw DIAGRAM ER Diagram Tool

Entity-relationship model, also called ER-model, is the main tool of domain modeling on the stage of conceptual design. The modeling of domain data structures is based on the use of graphical tools - Entity-Relationship diagrams (ER-diagrams). The core concepts of ER-Diagram are entity, attribute and relationship. ER-diagram lets visually represent the entities, helps effectively document all properties of designed system and to detail the data storages. To represent the elements at ER-model are commonly used Chen’s notation and Crow’s foot notation, each has its pros and cons. The entity on ER-diagram is represented in the form of rectangle, which specifies its name. An attribute is a property of the entity and relationship is an interaction between the entities. The relationship between two entities is called binary, between more than two entities - ternary. Specific software, such as ConceptDraw DIAGRAM with Entity-Relationship Diagram (ERD) solution from ConceptDraw Solution Park is helpful for easy creation Entity-Relationship Diagrams.

Entity-Relationship Diagram (ERD) with ConceptDraw DIAGRAM

Entity-Relationship Diagram (ERD) is applied for detailed description of structures and high-level (conceptual) design databases using the Chen's and Crow's Foot notations. An ERD represents a diagram constructed mainly of rectangular blocks (for entities, data) linked with relationships. The links between the blocks are used to describe relations between the entities. There are three types of relationships: one-to-one, one-to-many, and many-to-many. Use the specialized ERD software - ConceptDraw DIAGRAM to create the Entity-Relationship Diagrams (ERDs) of any degree of complexity with Chen's and Crow's Foot notations. Draw them easily applying the powerful built-in tools and libraries of predesigned ERD vector objects from Entity-Relationship Diagram (ERD) solution from the Software Development area of ConceptDraw Solution Park. You can also start with one of ready template or sample included to this solution. Designing the ERDs in ConceptDraw DIAGRAM you can easy move the objects within a diagram with saving the relationships between them.
How to Build an Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD)
How to Build an Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD)