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APPENDIX A Data Modeling - Sdu

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6 Appendix A <strong>Data</strong> <strong>Modeling</strong><br />

Entity<br />

Example Instances<br />

FIGURE A-3<br />

Entities and Instances<br />

Patient<br />

John Smith<br />

Susan Jones<br />

Peter Todd<br />

Dale Turner<br />

Pat Turner<br />

Concatenated<br />

Identifier<br />

Single Identifier<br />

Identifier to be Added<br />

Later<br />

PATIENT PATIENT PATIENT<br />

FIGURE A-4<br />

Choices for Identifiers<br />

PAT_lastname<br />

PAT_firstname<br />

PAT_Idnumber<br />

PAT_lastname<br />

PAT_firstname<br />

PAT_lastname<br />

PAT_firstname<br />

appointment” and “an appointment is scheduled by a patient.” In Figure 7.1, we have<br />

included words for both directions of the relationship line; the top words are read from<br />

parent to child, and the bottom words are read from child to parent. Notice that the doctor<br />

entity is the parent entity in the doctor – appointment relationship.<br />

Cardinality Relationships have two properties. First, a relationship has cardinality, which<br />

is ratio of parent instances to child instances. To determine the cardinality for a relationship,<br />

we ask ourselves: “How many instances of one entity are associated with an instance<br />

of the other?” (Remember that an instance is one occurrence of an entity, such as patient<br />

John Smith, Dr. Dave Brousseau, or Aetna Insurance Company.) For example, how many<br />

appointments can a patient schedule? How many patients are associated with an appointment?<br />

How many insurance companies can a patient have? The cardinality for binary relationships<br />

(i.e., relationships between two entities) are 1 : 1, 1 : N, or M : N, and we will<br />

discuss each in turn.<br />

The 1 : 1 relationship (read as “one to one”), means that one instance of the parent<br />

entity is associated with one instance of the child entity. Notice that there is a 1 : 1 relationship<br />

between appointment and bill in Figure A-1. Each appointment (the parent<br />

entity) always results in a single bill that is generated, and a bill (the child entity) is associated<br />

with only one appointment. The model contains a solid dot and a number “1” on the<br />

relationship line nearest the child entity to designate the 1 : 1 relationship.<br />

More often, relationships are 1 : N relationships (read as “one to many”). In this kind<br />

of relationship, a single instance in a parent entity is associated with many instances of a<br />

child entity; however, the child-entity instance is only related to one instance in the parent.<br />

For example, a patient (parent entity) can schedule many appointments (child<br />

entity), but a particular appointment is scheduled by only one patient, suggesting a 1 : N<br />

relationship between patient and appointment. Another 1 : N relationship is between<br />

insurance company and payment (an insurance company can make many payments, but a<br />

specific payment is only associated with one insurance company). A character resembling<br />

a solid dot is placed closest to appointment to show the “many” end of the relationship.

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