For class on 26/1/2012
1. Work out an example design for a movie database, such as IMDB (to see where you have problems or questions). It should cover the following aspects, for example:
a. Movies have names and years or release.
b. Movies have actors, producers, and directors.
c. Movies are shown in theatres, some of which are parts of theatre chains (such as Galaxy or Empire).
d. Movies, actors, producers, and directors win awards in certain years.
2. How would you represent your design from Q1 as tables in the relational model? What are the primary keys and foreign keys in those tables?
3. Attributes for entities can be either identifiers, discriminators (for weak entities), or descriptors. Can attributes for relationships also be of any of these types? Why or why not?
4. If a database is to represent that walls are painted in various colours, under what circumstance(s) would you make colour an attribute of wall, and when would you make it an attribute of some other entity type related to wall?
5. Suppose that a grad student were only allowed to TA a course taught by that student's RA supervisor. Can this constraint be modeled in an E-R diagram? Show how or explain why not.