Architecting and designing : Data modeling : Components of an entity relation diagram : Objects in an ERD : Relation lines : Defining identifying and nonidentifying relations
  
Defining identifying and nonidentifying relations
Relation Line Info. tab
Reverse Phrase
The grammatically reverse name for the relation line; for example, “customer PLACES order” and “order IS PLACED BY customer.” The reverse phrase is for documentation purposes only and can be displayed on the diagram.
Parent identifies child
Is the relation line identifying? If it is, foreign keys will be propagated as primary key components; if it is not, they are propagated as non-key attributes. Toggling this choice off turns an identifying line into a non‑identifying line.
Parent is optional
The record represented by the parent entity is not required. If the relation line is identifying, this field is grayed out.
Parent Entity
The source entity of the relation line, whose Primary Key components will become Foreign Keys in the Child Entity.
Number of children
The number of child records (represented by the child entity) that can exist for each parent record (represented by the parent entity).
Child Entity
The target entity of the relation line, which is the recipient of Foreign Keys from the relationship.
Parent Exclusion Arc Character and Child Exclusion Arc Character
The characters to place on the arc when specifying exclusive relations.
Referential Integrity tab
The actions to be taken by the database when a user attempts to insert, update or delete a record involved in this relationship. These properties are copied to the constraint when a Physical Data Model is created from the logical model.
Foreign Keys tab
Primary Key Name
The names of the primary key components of the parent entity. The values are completed automatically and are not user-modifiable.
Roles Name
The name the foreign key attribute should take in the child entity in place of the primary key name.
FK Column Name
The name the foreign key attribute should take in the physical table in place of the primary key name of the column in the parent table. This value is transferred as “Role Name” when the physical data model is created.
Constraint Name
The name of the constraint in the physical data model.
Description tab
A text description of the relationship, for documentation purposes only.
Note An identifying relation cannot be converted to a non-specific relation.
See also
Relation lines