Entity Relationship Diagram, or an ERD, is a type of structural diagram, This diagram is used for database design and contains different symbols and connectors to visualize important information. This information displayed is the major entities within the system scope, and the inter-relationships among these entities. ERD are typically made to help a business document existing databases in order to figure out problems and spot inefficiencies to improve business processes. An ERD has 3 symbols that embodies a diagram, a rectangle for the entity (noun), an oval for the attribute (adjective), and a diamond for the relationship (verb). The two notations used for ERDs are Crow’s Foot and Chen. Cardinality is the number of values in a set when it comes to ERDs. Cardinality as three forms which are one-to-one, one-to-many, and many-to-many. One-to-one is when the relationship is from one entity to one entity. One-to-many is when the relationship is between one entity to many entities. Finally, many-to-many is the relationship between many entities to many entities.
ERDs :
https://www.smartdraw.com/entity-relationship-diagram/
https://www.visual-paradigm.com/guide/data-modeling/what-is-entity-relationship-diagram/
Hi Aidan,
I really enjoyed learning about ERDs because I had no knowledge of them before. It was a concept that I picked up easily because it made a lot of sense. It is so important to know how different entities interact throughout an organization. ERDs not only show relationships, but they show attributes about each entity. I would find an ERD very useful when coming into a new job so I know how processes work and how communication flows throughout the org.