Data processing: database and file management or data structures – Database design – Data structure types
Reexamination Certificate
2000-08-10
2004-01-13
Robinson, Greta (Department: 2177)
Data processing: database and file management or data structures
Database design
Data structure types
Reexamination Certificate
active
06678693
ABSTRACT:
This application claims priority based on Japanese Patent Application No. 11-228419, filed Aug. 12, 1999; Japanese Patent Application No. 2000-40191; filed on Feb. 17, 2000; and on Japanese Patent Application No. 2000-234663, filed on Aug. 2, 2000.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a database design system, a database design method, a recording medium, and a display method. More precisely, the present invention relates to a database design system, a database design method, a recording medium, and a display method which automatically create an E-R diagram.
2. Description of the Related Art
An E-R (Entity-Relationship) model database creating operation is performed through each phase of preliminary design phase, detail design phase, and E-R diagram creation phase.
In a normalized database design process, which is mainly for an input-output screen (referred to as “screen” hereafter) and for a form, DA (Data Administrators) and SE (Systems Engineers) take charge of the task of designing. The present situation is that the number of screens/forms is more than 100 or 200 in some cases, and DAs and SEs design all of the screens/forms by handwork. The E-R model database design is described in detail in, for example, “Client/Server Database Design Technique” (SRC Handbook, by Masamni Satoh, the fourth edition published on Oct. 20, 1994).
When E-R diagrams are created by handwork, there has been a problem in that working hours are prolonged remarkably following an increase of the number of formats of screens/forms and thus lowers the production efficiency, or that the quality of the created E-R diagram will be dependent on experience of individual designers.
Moreover, when additional screens or additional forms need to be formed after an E-R diagram is created, DAs or SEs have to be engaged in additional processes by handwork. Since the design method is not specified, there has been another problem in that the additional processes are difficult to be performed and that designs differ according to the designers.
In order to solve these problems, the applicant of the present invention has proposed an E-R diagram design system in which normalization design of a database is worked out automatically by utilizing a computer in a database normalization design and development operation for an RDB (Relational Database).
More precisely, the system classifies screen/form data into key definition data and data items, and creates a temporary entity. The system retrieves the key definition data of each temporary entity, aggregates duplicated entities into one, normalizes the entity (i.e., creates a normalized entity), and specifies a type of each normalized entity. Moreover, the system creates a table showing the correspondence between the normalized entity and each screen/form, and creates an E-R model on the basis of the relationship between each entity in the table and/or stored in memory in advance.
By utilizing this system, an accurate normalization design of a database can be worked out without depending on each designer, so that the production efficiency and the quality can be raised.
However, in the prior art, when a plurality of E-R diagrams created for every business or every organization are integrated (an integrated E-R model generation), when the created E-R diagram is split into every business or every organization (or every business or every organization is extracted from the E-R diagram, i.e., an extracted E-R model generation), or when an E-R diagram is created for every screen/form in order to create a program specification, there has been a problem with this system in that whole steps of the normalization design of the database have to be done over again from the very beginning even though E-R diagrams have been created in the past, so that the production efficiency is inferior.
Moreover, in the prior art, when data generated in the process of design of the E-R diagram need to be altered in order to create an E-R diagram after addition or deletion of a screen/form, modification of the contents, or the like, there has been a problem with the above-described system in that generation process of the data has to be done over again from the very beginning, so that the production efficiency is inferior.
Further, when a screen/form needs to be deleted, a user designates entities, which are used only on the screen/form to be deleted, from among the entities used on the screen/form, and then the system deletes the designated entities and the relationship between these entities to create again an E-R diagram. Therefore, there has been a problem with the system in that an accurate normalization design of a database may not be worked out when the user mistakenly designates entities used on other screens.
Further, in the prior art, processing objects are screens/forms, so that the system has not corresponded to a functional specification, in which operations between data items define other data items, frequently used in business. Furthermore, in the prior art, each type of data cannot be effectively displayed during an E-R diagram creation process. Thus, the E-R diagram creation process has been lacking in user-friendliness.
The present invention is provided so as to solve the aforementioned problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a database design system, a database design method, and a recording medium, in which a normalization design operation for an RDB can be performed corresponding to a functional specification as well as a screen/form, and integration of and extraction from E-R diagrams created after a database normalization design operation, and addition and deletion of targeted screens, forms and/or functional specifications to be processed can be performed efficiently and accurately, so that the production efficiency and quality can be improved. Further, another object of the present invention is to provide a display method that can effectively display each type of data when an E-R diagram is created.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In order to achieve the aforementioned objects, a first aspect of the present invention is a database design system utilizing an E-R model including: a temporary entity creation section for creating a temporary entity by classifying a plurality of data including key definition data and data items corresponding to the key definition data into the key definition data and the data items corresponding to the key definition data; a normalized entity creation section for creating a normalized entity by aggregating the temporary entities, if any, which have a common key definition data therein, into one entity; a setting section for setting an entity type for the normalized entity; a first table creation section for creating a first matrix table showing the correspondence between the normalized entity created by said normalized entity creation section and the data; a second table creation section for creating, for each of the data, a second matrix table showing the relationship between the normalized entities which belong to the data, on the basis of the first matrix table and the relationship between the normalized entities based on a preset entity type; and an E-R diagram creation section for creating an E-R diagram on the basis of the second matrix table created for each of the data by said second table creation section.
In accordance with the first aspect of the present invention, the temporary entity creation section classifies the plurality of data, which include the key definition data and the data items corresponding to the key definition data and are input by the input section, into the key definition data and the data items corresponding to the key definition data to create a temporary (or unnormalized) entity.
In a second aspect of the invention, the system further includes an input section for inputting a plurality of data which includes key definition data and data items corresponding to the key definition data. Data may be input to the database design system with the input section,
Pannala S R
Robinson Greta
Shiraishi Toshiko
Thomas Kayden Horstemeyer & Risley LLP
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