Unitary entities
Names can be split into personal names and corporate names. You decide that all names should have the same features in this model; that is, you do not plan to record different information about a company than you would record about a person. Likewise, you decide that only one kind of address exists; you are not required to treat home addresses differently from business addresses.
However, you also realize that more than one kind of telephone number exists. Voice numbers are answered by a person, fax numbers connect to a fax machine, and modem numbers connect to a computer. You decide that you want to record different information about each kind of number, so these three types are different entities.
For the personal telephone directory example, you decide that you
want to keep track of the following entities:
- Name
- Address (mailing)
- Telephone number (voice)
- Telephone number (fax)
- Telephone number (modem)