Inheritance properties

Chapter 4 Building Conceptual Data Models

You can double-click any inheritance symbol in the diagram to display its properties:

Property	Description
Name	The name of the item which should be clear and meaningful, and should convey the item's purpose to non-technical users
Code	The technical name of the item used for generating code or scripts, which may be abbreviated, and should not generally include spaces
Comment	Descriptive label for the inheritance link
Stereotype	Sub-classification used to extend the semantics of an object without changing its structure; it can be predefined or user-defined
Parent	Name of the parent entity.You can use the tools to the right of the list to create a new entity, browse the complete tree of available entities or view the properties of the selected parent entity.
Mutually exclusive children	Indicates if only one child can exist for one occurrence of the parent entity.
Complete	Indicates that all instances of the parent entity (surtype) must belong to one of the children (subtypes). For example, entity Person has 2 sub-types Male and Female; each instance of entity Person is either a male or a female

An inheritance link definition also includes the following properties, which are defined on associated property sheets:

Property	Description
Generation	Group of properties that affect physical implementation
Children	List of child entities
Notes	Description associated with inheritance link
Rules	Business rules attached to the inheritance link

Depending on the model notation, the inheritance symbol displays the inheritance status:

IDEF1X	E/R and Merise notation	Description
		Standard
—		Mutually exclusive inheritance
		Complete inheritance
—		Mutually exclusive and complete inheritance