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ERD Notation Cheat Sheet

Dashed lines in entity relationship diagrams (ERDs) represent non-identifying relationships between entities, where the primary key of the parent entity is not used as a foreign key in the child entity. While some modelers specify primary keys in logical models, strictly speaking primary keys should be defined at the physical modeling stage. Relationships in ERDs can typically be set as non-identifying by default unless a modeling tool requires specifying the relationship type. ERD notation may use diamonds to denote cardinality but modern implementations often omit these diamonds.

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1K views3 pages

ERD Notation Cheat Sheet

Dashed lines in entity relationship diagrams (ERDs) represent non-identifying relationships between entities, where the primary key of the parent entity is not used as a foreign key in the child entity. While some modelers specify primary keys in logical models, strictly speaking primary keys should be defined at the physical modeling stage. Relationships in ERDs can typically be set as non-identifying by default unless a modeling tool requires specifying the relationship type. ERD notation may use diamonds to denote cardinality but modern implementations often omit these diamonds.

Uploaded by

John
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Cheat Sheet: ERD Notation

Handout: A simple guide to reading and using Information Engineering* ERD Notation

The Basics

ERD Cheat Sheet

Page 1 of 3

What do dashed lines mean?


Identifying / Non-Identifying Relationships (solid vs. dashed lines)
Note: Some modelers prefer to start thinking about primary keys in logical model, however;
strictly speaking, this should be reserved for physical modeling.
Only if your modeling tool requires you to specify the type of relationship should you worry about
it. In this case, set all relationships to non-identifying.

ERD Cheat Sheet

Page 2 of 3

ERD Notation Styles


*Note: in its pure form, ERD notation places a diamond on each association where cardinality is
described. Most modern implementation of this notation drop the diamond.

ERD Cheat Sheet

Page 3 of 3

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