Products Solutions Samples Buy
✕
This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the ConceptDraw site you are agreeing to our Use of Site Cookies.
Try ConceptDraw Free

Entity Relationship Diagram Symbols

Entity Relationship Diagram Symbols
The semantic modeling method nowadays is successfully applied in database structure design. It is effective method of modeling the data structures, which is based on the meaning of these data. As a tool of semantic modeling, there are used different types of Entity-Relationship Diagrams. Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD) is applied to visually and clearly represent a structure of a business database. The main components of ERDs are: entity, relation and attributes. An entity is a class of similar objects in the model, each entity is depicted in the form of rectangle and has the name expressed by a noun. Relation is shown in the form of non-directional line that connects two entities. There are several notation styles used for ERDs: information engineering style, Chen style, Bachman style, Martin Style. The Entity Relationship Diagram symbols used for professional ERD drawing are predesigned by professionals and collected in the libraries of the Entity-Relationship Diagram (ERD) solution for ConceptDraw DIAGRAM software.

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

Notation & Symbols for ERD

The ER diagram is constructed from the specific ERD graphic elements. There are used 2 types of ERD notations: Chen and Crow's Foot. A complete set of work flow shapes, notation & symbols for ERD, entity relationship stencils, included in Entity-Relationship Diagram (ERD) solution for ConceptDraw DIAGRAM software, makes drawing diagrams based on ERD notation as smooth as possible.

Anyone Have an ERD Symbols Quick Reference?

ERD drawing becomes easier with predesigned entity relationship symbols, work flow shapes, entity relationship stencils. All variety of ERD symbols you may need for ERDs design is packed into libraries and templates from Entity-Relationship Diagram (ERD) Solution for ConceptDraw DIAGRAM diagramming and vector drawing software. But anyone have an ERD symbols quick reference? Detailed reference information for them is represented at the tables.

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.
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

ER Diagram Styles

When creating ER diagrams, you can apply different color ER diagram styles and also notation styles. ConceptDraw DIAGRAM enhanced with Entity-Relationship Diagram (ERD) Solution gives the ability to draw visual and attractive ER Diagrams using the style icons from Crow’s Foot notation and Chen's notation professionally designed and offered by ERD Chen's Notation and ERD Crow’s Foot Notation libraries.

Chen ERD Diagram

The vector stencils library Chen ERD from the solution Entity-Relationship Diagrams (ERD) contains specific symbols of the Chen ERD notation including entity symbols and relationship symbols for ConceptDraw DIAGRAM diagramming and vector drawing software. The Entity-Relationship Diagrams (ERD) solution is contained in the Software Development area of ConceptDraw Solution Park.
"In software engineering, an entity–relationship model (ER model) is a data model for describing a database in an abstract way.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." [Entity–relationship model. Wikipedia]
This sample Chen's ER-diagram illustrates the structure of a typical MMORP game.
"Massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) mixes the genres of role-playing video games and Massively multiplayer online games, possibly in the form of web browser-based games, in which a very large number of players interact with one another within a virtual world.
As in all RPGs, players assume the role of a character (often in a fantasy world or science-fiction world) and take control over many of that character's actions. MMORPGs are distinguished from single-player or small multi-player online RPGs by the number of players, and by the game's persistent world (usually hosted by the game's publisher), which continues to exist and evolve while the player is offline and away from the game." [Massively multiplayer online role-playing game. Wikipedia]
This ERD example was redrawn using the ConceptDraw PRO diagramming and vector drawing software from the Wikipedia file: ER Diagram MMORPG.png. [en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ File:ER_ Diagram_ MMORPG.png]
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. [creativecommons.org/ licenses/ by-sa/ 3.0/ deed.en]
This Chen's ERD example is included in the Entity-Relationship Diagram (ERD) solution from the Software Development area of ConceptDraw Solution Park.
Chen's ERD
Chen's ERD, weak key attribute, weak entity, relationship, multivalue attribute, key attribute, identifying relationship, entity, derived attribute, attribute,
Used Solutions