CREATING THE LOGICAL MODEL - A Developer's Guide to Data Modeling for SQL Server - page 154

IDEF1X: Data modeling

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IDEF2: Simulation model design

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IDEF3: Process description capture

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IDEF4: Object-Oriented design

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IDEF5: Ontology description capture

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Feel free to explore the Internet for more information on each of these
specifications as they pertain to you in your professional life. For our pur-
poses, we are concerned primarily with IDEF1X. After all, it was designed
specifically for data modeling. However, our data model for Mountain
View Music is not notated using IDEF1X. We are using another standard
that is gaining ground specifically among users of proprietary data model-
ing tools: Information Engineering (IE) Crow's Feet notation.
Figure 7.3 shows our Products and Vendors entities and relationships
notated using the IDEF1X standard.
The relationships are notated with a single solid line, and, in this case,
the child entity is notated with a solid circle at the connection point. The
solid circle indicates that this is the “many” side of a one-or-more-to-many
relationship. In IDEF1X, the solid circle can appear on either end of the

F IGURE 7.3

The Product Vendors entity and its related entities, in the IDEF1X notation