This section contains the following topics:
Establishing Naming Conventions for the Attributes
Identifying the Attributes of Each Entity
Identifying the Attributes for Each Relationship Type
Identifying Attribute Characteristics
Attributes and values
An attribute is the smallest unit of data that describes an entity or a relationship. A single occurrence of an attribute is called a value. For example, John Smith might be one of several values that exist for the attribute NAME of the entity EMPLOYEE. Several synonyms are used in the computer industry to refer to an attribute, including data item, data element, field, and column. All of these terms have roughly the same meaning.
In this chapter, we will identify the attributes that are associated with each entity and data relationship defined so far during the logical design process.
Identifying data attributes involves the following procedures:
Each of these procedures is explained below.
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