CIS 3530 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Dependent Records, Unique Key, Subtyping

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Weak entity types do not have a primary key, only a partial key. If the entity instance types have to rely on entity instances in another entity set then its a weak entity. Drawn with a double rectangle to indicate weak entity type. Ex: dependent of an employee would be weak, because the dependent records cannot exist without an employee to be related to. Identify the weak entity with the partial key. Shown on an er diagram with a dotted line under it"s attribute name. The dependents partial key could be their name" attribute. The entity instance can exist without depending on any other entity. The partial key of a weak entity type is a set of attributes that allow us to distinguish entities that are all dependent on one. The primary key of a weak entity type can be formed by the primary key of the strong entity set on which it is existence dependent, plus its partial key.

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