An E-R diagram usually models the state of an enterprise at a point in time.Suppose we wish to track temporal changes, that is, changes to data over time.For example, Zhang may have been a student between September 2015 andMay 2019, while Shankar may have had instructor Einstein as advisor from May2018 to December 2018, and again from June 2019 to January 2020. Similarly,attribute values of an entity or relationship, such as title and credits of course,salary, or even name of instructor, and tot cred of student, can change over time.One way to model temporal changes is as follows:We define a new data typecalled valid time, which is a time interval, or a set of time intervals. We thenassociate a valid time attribute with each entity and relationship, recording thetime periods during which the entity or relationship is valid. The end time of aninterval can be infinity; for example, if Shankar became a student in September2018, and is still a student, we can represent the end time of the valid time intervalas infinity for the Shankar entity. Similarly, we model attributes that canchange over time as a set of values, each with its own valid time.a. Draw an E-R diagram with the student and instructor entities, and the advisorrelationship, with the above extensions to track temporal changes.b. Convert the E-R diagram discussed above into a set of relations.It should be clear that the set of relations generated is rather complex, leading to difficulties in tasks such as writing queries in SQL. An alternative approach, which is used more widely, is to ignore temporal changes when designing the E-R model (in particular, temporal changes to attribute values), and to modify the relations generated from the E-R model to track temporal changes.

Database System Concepts

7th Edition

ISBN:9780078022159

Author:Abraham Silberschatz Professor, Henry F. Korth, S. Sudarshan

Publisher:Abraham Silberschatz Professor, Henry F. Korth, S. Sudarshan

Chapter1: Introduction

Section: Chapter Questions

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An E-R diagram usually models the state of an enterprise at a point in time.
Suppose we wish to track temporal changes, that is, changes to data over time.
For example, Zhang may have been a student between September 2015 and
May 2019, while Shankar may have had instructor Einstein as advisor from May
2018 to December 2018, and again from June 2019 to January 2020. Similarly,
attribute values of an entity or relationship, such as title and credits of course,
salary, or even name of instructor, and tot cred of student, can change over time.
One way to model temporal changes is as follows:We define a new data type
called valid time, which is a time interval, or a set of time intervals. We then
associate a valid time attribute with each entity and relationship, recording the
time periods during which the entity or relationship is valid. The end time of an
interval can be infinity; for example, if Shankar became a student in September
2018, and is still a student, we can represent the end time of the valid time interval
as infinity for the Shankar entity. Similarly, we model attributes that can
change over time as a set of values, each with its own valid time.
a. Draw an E-R diagram with the student and instructor entities, and the advisor
relationship, with the above extensions to track temporal changes.
b. Convert the E-R diagram discussed above into a set of relations.
It should be clear that the set of relations generated is rather complex, leading to difficulties in tasks such as writing queries in SQL. An alternative approach, which is used more widely, is to ignore temporal changes when designing the E-R model (in particular, temporal changes to attribute values), and to modify the relations generated from the E-R model to track temporal changes.

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