ER/Studio - Embarcadero Technologies Product Documentation

GLOSSARY
I
Identifier: An attribute or column that helps to identify an entity or table instance; it is all or part of the entity’s or
table’s primary key.
Identifying Relationship: A type of relationship in which the parent entity contributes its primary key as part of the
child entity’s primary key.
Independent Entity Key: A type of entity in which no foreign keys participate in its primary key.
Index: A database object used to enforce unique values in a table; an index can also be used to access table data
more efficiently.
Inheritance: The process of propagating foreign keys from parent entities to child entities based on relationship
rules.
Instance: A single occurrence or member of an entity.
Integrity: A property of a data model in which all assertions hold.
Integrity Constraint: A database feature that enforces foreign key relationships.
Inversion Entry: An attribute or set of attributes that do not uniquely identify every instance of an entity, but which
are frequently used for access. The database implementation of an inversion entry is a non unique index.
Inverse Verb: A description of a relationship that conveys the business rule implied by the relationship. A verb
phrase is read from the child entity to the parent entity like a sentence.
IRD Rules: A business rule governing the treatment of Inserts, Replacements and Deletions of entity instances.
K
Key: A key is one or more columns that can be used to identify or access a particular row or set of rows. Keys can be
created in a table, index, or referential constraint. A column can be part of more than one key. See also Composite
Key and Unique Key.
Key Area: The portion of the entity box that displays the primary key. This is the area above the line dividing the
entity box.
Key-Based Model: A data model in third normal form or higher.
L
Library: A piece of BASIC code that can be reused in different macros.
Logical Design: The dimension of a data model that addresses real system requirements in the abstract, without
consideration of data storage, performance or other physical implementation issues.
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