Aggregation in DBMS – Your Go-To Guide

In the world of databases, handling relationships among entities is a vital factor in designing an efficient and dependable database. One of the essential standards in this regard is aggregation, which performs a critical role in complex relationships within a Database Management System (DBMS). Aggregation enables modelling of complex interactions among more than one entity, providing a manner to express relationships that are more elaborate than simple binary relationships.

In this article, we will learn about Aggregation in DBMS in detail. We will cover process flow, real-world examples, its types in DBMS, and various other vital components. We will also learn how ER models are used in aggregation in database management systems. Learning about the real-world applications of aggregation would also enhance the skill of a database engineer, resulting in creating the best database design.

What is Aggregation?

Aggregation refers to a process of combining two or more entities to create a single meaningful entity. Aggregation is a type of higher-level abstraction that lets us depict relationships between things, especially when modelling a relationship between an entity and another is required. In other words, modelling situations in which an entity engages with the outcome of a relationship between other entities is useful.

One way to conceptualise aggregation is as a process in which one relationship functions as a component of another or as a relationship. When we need to represent relationships including several entities and relationships, it is especially helpful in Entity-Relationship (ER) modelling. It is an essential component of data analysis, reporting, and decision-making. It can range from straightforward computations like sum, average, count, minimum, maximum, and to more intricate processes like grouping and nesting.

If we talk about using numerical data values to perform aggregation, then we can use the following operations or methods to aggregate different entities into a single entity. Here are some of the DBMS aggregation operations performed:

1. SUM- This method is used to find the sum or total of multiple data values.
2. AVG (Average)- This method is used to find the average of multiple data values.
3. COUNT- This method is used for headcount or finding the total no of data items.
4. MIN (Minimum)- This method is used to find the minimum value out of a group of items.
5. MAX (Maximum)- This method is used to find the maximum value out of a group of items.
6. std dev (Standard Deviation)- This method is used to find the dispersion or the variation of sets of data.
7. Filtering Aggregated Data- This method is used to filter out important data out of huge datasets.

Aggregation in ER Diagrams

An important idea in ER (Entity-Relationship) diagrams, which are frequently used in database modelling is aggregation. Aggregation is shown in ER diagrams by enclosing the relationship to be aggregated in a rectangle and joining it to the associated object with a line. As a result, a higher-level entity is produced that is capable of engaging in further interactions.

To create an ER model or diagram, some of the basic concepts must be understood.

• Entity: An entity in an ER diagram can be anything like an object.
• Relationship: The relation between two or more entities defines the relationship.

For example, in a university database, there can be entities like Student, Course, and Professor. Also, there may be some relationship between them. We can aggregate the Enrolls connection to simulate the situation in which a Professor oversees the enrollment process.

Steps to create an ER-model:

1. With the entities Student, Course, and Professor, create an ER diagram.
2. Use a diamond shape to symbolise the enrollment link between the student and the course.
3. To represent aggregation, draw a rectangle around the Enrolls connection.
4. Establishing a fresh connection oversees the relationship between the aggregated entity (Enrolls) and the professor entity.

We will see the ER model for the above example next.

Process Flow of Aggregation

Aggregation in database management systems can be explained using the entity-relationship model (ER model). The ER diagram can depict the process flow of the aggregation diagram in DBMS. It contains the entities, attributes, and relationships in a DBMS. This is comparable to the tables, rows, and columns that make up a database.

ER model has various types of relationships that are used to define a relationship between different entities in DBMS:

• One-to-One: In this type of relationship, the trivial entity only has a relation with only one other entity. For instance, one employee can work only in a single department in an organisation.
• One-to-Many: In this type of relationship, one entity can have a relationship with multiple entities. For instance, an employee can work in multiple departments of a company.
• Many-to-One: In this type of relationship, many entities have a relationship with only one other entity. For instance, many employees can work in only one department in an organisation.
• Many-to-Many: In this type of relationship, many entities have a relationship with many other entities. For instance, many employees can work in multiple departments in an organisation.

In this ER model diagram, there are three entities: P, Q, and S. The entities P and Q have a relationship, R1, between them. This relationship can then be aggregated to form a higher-level relationship. Aggregation allows R1 to be treated as an abstract entity that can participate in another relationship, R2, with entity S. Through aggregation, R1, and R2 form a complex relationship that accurately models the interactions between the original entities P, Q, and S in a more meaningful way.

Example of Aggregation

Let’s consider an example of a university to understand the concept of aggregation more clearly. Consider a database at a university that contains entities such as Student, Course, and Professor. A link called Enroll between Student and Course might exist, signifying that a student has taken a course. We may also have a relationship that teaches between the professor and the course. Now, we would utilise aggregation to establish a higher-level relationship to replicate the situation where a teacher oversees students’ registration in a course.

In this example, it is possible to combine the Enroll relationship between the Student and the Course into a single entity and link it to the Professor entity using a different relationship, such as Supervises.

Let’s understand an example of a university database using SQL. To start with, we have to create a database schema for a university database first. First, let’s define the terms “student,” “course,” and “professor.” After that, we’ll create relationships between them, like Enroll and Teaches. To simulate the Supervises relationship, we will finally combine these relationships.

SQL Code:

The above SQL code creates three tables in the university database namely, Student, Course, and Professor.

SQL Code:

1. Enroll Relationship:

The above SQL code creates a table Enroll with a foreign key relationship with Student and Course tables in the university database.

2. Teaches Relationship

The above SQL code creates a table Teaches with a foreign key relationship with Professor and Course tables in the university database.

We now simulate the situation in which a professor manages student enrollment in a course. To accomplish this, we create a new connection named Supervises and use it to aggregate the Enroll relationship and attach it to the Professor entity.

The SQL code simulates a scenario in which a new Supervises relationship links the Professor entity to the aggregated Enroll relationship between Student and Course. The more intricate modelling of real-world situations, like a professor supervising course enrollment, is made possible by this aggregation.

Aggregation is commonly used in DBMS to graphically represent the aggregation and other relationships between different entities. Here are some of the reasons why we use aggregation in DBMS:

1. Complex relationships modelling

Aggregation renders a more realistic and expressive representation of complex relationships, whereas simple binary relations do not accurately capture the interactions between entities. It also allows for many-to-many relationships among multiple entities thereby creating more meaningful entities with great results.

2. Enhanced database design

Database designers can build more efficient and organised database schemas using aggregation. It reduces redundancy and improves consistency in relationships, leading to a cleaner and maintainable database structure.

3. Better query capabilities

The use of aggregated relationships makes it possible to construct more complicated queries that involve multiple entities and relationships within them. This may result in more accurate and meaningful query outputs especially when there are hierarchical or multi-level relations involved.

4. Scalability

Building scalable databases is supported by aggregation through creating modular and reusable associations. In this case of a complex database, new associations can be added with ease without tampering with the existing ones because of aggregation.

5. Single trivial entity

Aggregation is also required when a database management system (DBMS) contains a single trivial entity that has to be used for several different actions. Here, relationships between the trivial entity and other entities are formed. Depending on the necessary actions, this could result in numerous aggregate entities.

6. Concept clarity

By grouping related entities and relations, Aggregation simplifies the conceptual model of the database and makes clear the concept of the database.

Types of Aggregation in DBMS

To categorise aggregation in DBMS, the relationship between different entities or a group of entities is considered. Here are the primary types of aggregation in DBMS:

1. Simple Aggregation

Simple aggregation is the one in which there is an aggregation of a single relationship into an entity that can participate in another relationship. It is used when it’s necessary to depict a relationship between one entity and another.

For example, a relationship like Borrow between a Loan borrower and a Personal Loan in a loan company database can be combined to create an entity called a Loan, which can then have a relationship with a Loan Agent to indicate who is in charge of the loan procedure.

2. Composite Aggregation

Composite aggregation is a more powerful form of aggregation which is sometimes called composition. This means that the aggregated entity (relationship) depends on the existence of related entities and it too ceases to exist when any of them does not exist.

For example, a project in a project management system can relate to an Employee through a relation Manages that can be aggregated into a PM. When the project halts, this relationship dies with it.

3. Generalisation Aggregation

It involves multiple relationships being combined into one generalised higher-level relationship, often used for situations where different types of relationships have common characteristics shared among them.

For example, the university database can include relationships like Enrolls, Teaches, and Assigns (among entities like students, professors, and courses) as part of a generalised Academic Activity entity that represents any academic interaction between them.

When is Aggregation Used?

There are scenarios when aggregation becomes significant to be used while defining a schema of a database. It is usually used in SQL queries to carry out operations on numerical data sets, such as computing counts, averages, totals, and other complex interactions, etc. Below is a summary of the purposes and methods of using aggregation:

1. Data grouping

Grouping and aggregation frequently go hand in hand. It lets users use aggregate functions inside each collection of data after classifying it according to specific criteria, like categories or date ranges. For example, in SQL, you can compute the total profit of an organisation after grouping each area and year from where the company generates the income.

2. Complex Interactions Between Entities

Aggregation is also used when there are intricate links between things that are not well captured by straightforward relationships. As in situations where a relationship itself is related to another thing.

 3. Numerical Calculations

When doing numerical computations on grouped data, aggregation functions like SUM, AVG, COUNT, MIN, and MAX are frequently utilised. Within a dataset, these functions let users find counts, totals, averages, and minimum and maximum values.

 4. Hierarchical Structures

When representing any hierarchical structure in which a relationship is a subset or component of another relationship, aggregation is very helpful. Situations like supply chains, project management systems, and organisational hierarchies are typical examples of this.

 5. Multiple Relationships Involving the Same Entities

Aggregation can be a great technique for combining several relationships involving the same set of entities into a more logical structure, reducing redundancy and streamlining the overall design.

 6. Performance

Aggregation might also increase the query performance in a database. Aggregation enables the database to operate with summarised data, which is frequently smaller and more efficient to process, as opposed to retrieving and evaluating each row.

Applications of Aggregation in DBMS

There are various applications of aggregation in DBMS, where it helps in giving exceptional results. Here are various real-world applications of aggregation in DBMS:

1. College databases– Complex relationships between students, courses, professors, and academic departments are managed by aggregation. For example, the connections among students who register for classes can be combined and connected to the academic division in charge of the classes.
2. Healthcare– Aggregation is used in healthcare databases to simulate intricate relationships between doctors, patients, therapies, and other medical procedures. A therapy relationship between a patient and a doctor, for instance, can be combined and associated with a hospital entity to signify the hospital’s supervision of the treatment procedure. Similarly, an appointment relationship between a doctor and a patient can also be an example.
3. E-commerce– Aggregation is used in e-commerce systems to model the links between orders, products, payments, and customers. For instance, the connection between a client submitting an order and a Payment entity—which stands for the transaction’s payment procedure—can be combined and connected.
4. Banking– Relationship management between clients, accounts, transactions, and branches is done by aggregation. An entity called Branch, which represents the branch where the transaction occurred, can be associated with the relationship between a consumer making a transaction, for instance.
5. Supply Chain– Supply chain is one of the applications where aggregation aids in modelling links between suppliers, products, orders, and logistics in supply chain databases. One way to depict the process of transportation and delivery is by aggregating and linking the relationship between a product provider and a logistics business.
6. Project Management– Complex interactions between tasks, personnel, resources, and projects are represented by aggregation. An employee’s role in project management is represented by aggregating and linking the relationship between a project and its tasks to an Employee entity.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Aggregation

Advantages

• To model complex relationships, aggregation provides a powerful way that allows for more accurate and comprehensive representation of real-world scenarios.
• By reducing redundancy and ensuring consistency in relationships, aggregation helps to create a more organised and efficient database schema.
• ER diagrams are simplified through aggregation as related relationships are grouped into higher-level aggregates that make the diagrams easier to understand and interpret.
• Aggregated relationships can be used up again after they have been broken down into reusable modules. This makes it easier to scale the database as it grows in complexity.
• More complicated queries are made possible by aggregation. We can therefore expect more precise query results which are also relevant.

Disadvantages

• Although aggregation makes database design a bit easier in some ways, it can also introduce a lot of complexity that is difficult to understand and manage.
• Due to the additional processing that has to be carried out for managing the aggregated relationships, aggregation can result in performance overheads especially when dealing with large databases.
• For large datasets, aggregation can be computationally costly, which may lead to performance problems. Significant variations in data flows, for instance, may cause problems for data aggregation points, particularly those utilised in real-time dashboards.
• Designing aggregated relationships requires much thought and careful planning to capture real-life scenarios using the aggregation concept.
• Using too much aggregation can create very complicated designs of databases which become hard to manage or maintain.
• Aggregation can lead to the loss of detailed data or hide nuances in the data. For instance, combining disparate data types or dimensions can result in erroneous inferences.
• Aggregation may result in higher storage needs, which would raise the price of storage as well as other resources.

Conclusion

In this article, we have learned about aggregation in DBMS. Aggregation is a powerful and vital idea in DBMS that allows for the illustration of complicated relationships between entities. It enhances the modelling talents of databases, improves query competencies, and results in a greater organised and green database structure.

Whether you are designing database systems for healthcare, an e-commerce platform, or a college management system, knowledge and imposing aggregation will let you create an improved and scalable database. By carefully making plans and designing aggregated relationships, you can ensure that your database correctly represents the actual real-world scenarios it is intended to model.

As databases continue to conform and grow in complexity, aggregation will stay a vital component of database layout, allowing the advent of sophisticated and green database systems that can deal with the needs of cutting-edge programs.