UML for Database Design

The Concepts

The following UML, object-oriented, and other concepts are cited in this chapter. For a more complete discussion and more rigorous definitions of UML concepts, refer to Booch et al. [1999].

Association ”   a relationship between two or more elements that represents a link between instances of those elements

Aggregation ”   a special form of association that specifies a whole “part relationship between the whole and its parts

Association class ”   a modeling element that has both association and class properties

Generalization ”   a relationship in which objects of the child are substitutable for objects of the parent; represents an is a relationship between the super- and subtypes

Inheritance ”   the mechanism by which more specific elements incorporate the structure and behavior of more general elements