Chapter 3 Building Conceptual Data Models

Association link properties

You can modify an object's properties from its property sheet. To open an association link property sheet, double-click its diagram symbol or its Browser entry in the Association Links folder.

The General tab contains the following properties:

Property Description
Entity Entity connected by the association link. You can use the tools to the right of the list to create an object, browse the complete tree of available objects or view the properties of the currently selected object
Association Association connected by the association link
Role Label indicating the role of the association link
Identifier Indicates if the entity is dependent on the other entity
Cardinality Cardinality indicates the number of occurrences (one or many) that one entity has relative to another. You define the cardinality for each association link between the association and the entity. You can choose between:

  • 0,1 - There can be zero or one occurrence of the association in relation to one instance of the entity. The association is not mandatory
  • 0,n - There can be zero or many occurrences of the association in relation to one instance of the entity. The association is not mandatory
  • 1,1 - One occurrence of the entity can be related to only one occurrence of the association. The association is mandatory
  • 1,n - One occurrence of the entity can be related to one or many occurrences of the association. The association is mandatory


You can change the default format of cardinalities from the registry: 

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Sybase\PowerDesigner <version>\ModelOptions\Conceptual Options
CardinalityNotation=1 (0..1) or 2 (0,1)
Stereotype Sub-classification used to extend the semantics of an object without changing its structure; it can be predefined or user-defined

 

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