Entity Sets as Tables
We will use a vector notation to represent the value of an entity or object as an ordered list, sequence, or N-tuple of values of its attributes or data members.
- This avoids the redundancy of listing N <name,value> pairs which a pure set-theoretic notation requires.
We can then represent a set of entity instances in a tabular format with one column per attribute, and one row for each instance of the entity type.
An entity’s data type or class is independent of the relationships it may have with other entities.
- In OOP, a table is a container whose members are instances of its item’s Entity Type or Class.