What is the purpose of an associative entity in an ER model?
Practice Questions
Q1
What is the purpose of an associative entity in an ER model?
To represent a many-to-many relationship
To store attributes of a relationship
To simplify complex relationships
All of the above
Questions & Step-by-Step Solutions
What is the purpose of an associative entity in an ER model?
Correct Answer: An associative entity is used to represent a many-to-many relationship.
Step 1: Understand that an ER model is a way to represent data and relationships in a database.
Step 2: Recognize that sometimes, two entities (like 'Students' and 'Courses') can have a many-to-many relationship, meaning one student can enroll in many courses and one course can have many students.
Step 3: Realize that to manage this many-to-many relationship, we need a special type of entity called an associative entity.
Step 4: Know that an associative entity acts like a bridge between the two entities (Students and Courses) to connect them.
Step 5: Understand that the associative entity can also store additional information about the relationship, like the date a student enrolled in a course.
