The basic form for a participation constraint is min:max, where min is a nonnegative integer, and max is either a nonnegative integer or a star (*). The star designates an arbitrary nonnegative number greater than min. The most common participation constraints are 0:1, 1:1, 0:*, and 1:*.
In an ORM diagram, we place a participation constraint near the connection of the object class and relationship set to which it applies.
For instance:
Figure 1. Sample participation constraints
This example means that each object person in object class Person has one and only one object height in object class Height, while each object height in object class Height corresponds to zero or more object person in object class Person.
Instead of using nonnegative integers, we may also use variables.
For instance:
Figure 2. Variables in participation constraints
We also provide a shorthand notation for participation constraints.
The notation is applicable when the minimum and maximum values of a
participation constraint are identical. Figure 3 is a version of Figure 2
using the shorthand notation for applicable participation constraints.
Figure 3. Shorthand participation constraints
Here is a
short quiz so you can test your understanding of participation constraints.
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Co-occurence Constraints
