Unary Relationships

On the Job
manages

Supervisor

is managed by

Worker

Is this a legitimate design? Do you see problems with it?

The Family
marries

Husba nd

is married to

Wife

fathers

is child of

C hild
is child of bears

Is this a legitimate design? Do you see problems with it?

Complicated Relationships Among People*

Workers have supervisors, who also have supervisors Men and women can marry more than once Children born out of wedlock Half-brothers and -sisters What design will accommodate all of these?
* Not intended as a comment on social mores.

Relating an Entity to Itself

Emplo y ee Perso n

supervises supervised by

related to is relative of

An entity can be related to itself. Called a unary or recursive relationship Where do you put the foreign keys?

Unary 1:M
Emp lo y ee Emp lo y eeID La st N a me First N a me M id N a me S u p erv iso rID [ FK ]
supervises supervised by

Recursive foreign key placed in entity Name of FK must be different from name of PK Second instance of entity required in queries and relationships screen

Unary 1:1 or M:M

Perso n Perso n ID La st N a me First N a me M id N a me
is target of refers to

In t erp ersR ela t R ela tio n sh ip Ty p e R ela tio n sh ip N a me R ela tio n sh ip D esc

is source of contains

R ela tio n sh ip [A s] is of type Fro mPerso n [ FK ] describes To Perso n [ FK] R ela tio n sh ip Ty p e [FK ] Fro mD a t e To D a te

Associative entity required

Unary 1:1 or M:M

Name of FKs must be different in associative entity Second instance of entity required in queries and relationships screen

Common Uses of Unary Relationships

People
sometimes supertype/subtype required to fully document relationship

Bill of Materials
products composed of other products

Political Geography
Precincts within cities within counties within states within countries within continents

More about the 1:1 or M:M Interpersonal Unary Relationship

Interpersonal relationships are often two-way, with the reciprocal relationship sometimes having a different name
Parent-child Sibling-sibling Spouse-spouse Supervisor-worker Employer-employee

More about the 1:1 or M:M Interpersonal Unary Relationship

In general, it is better to have only one record for a given relationship
Do not have
One record where person A is child of B A second record where B is parent of A

Instead
A single record that records both directions of the relationship

Requires that there be the ability to indicate the reciprocal of a relationship

A Solution for the 1:1 or M:M Interpersonal Unary Relationship

A Relationship Type table is created to hold both forward and reciprocal terms for the relationship

A Solution for the 1:1 or M:M Interpersonal Unary Relationship

Only one entry per pair (if 1:1)

A Solution for the 1:1 or M:M Interpersonal Unary Relationship

Carefully define the directionality
In these examples
[second person] is the [relationship] of [first person] [first person] is the [reciprocal] of [second person]

A Solution for the 1:1 or M:M Interpersonal Unary Relationship

Create a view for one direction that includes PersonID, Name, and Relationship with Other Person

A Solution for the 1:1 or M:M Interpersonal Unary Relationship

Expression that returns the Relationship with Other Person
Relationship: [tblRelationshipType]![RelationshipType] & " of " & fnNameFirstLast([tblPerson_1]![FirstName], [tblPerson_1]![MidName],[tblPerson_1]![LastName])

A Solution for the 1:1 or M:M Interpersonal Unary Relationship

Create a view for the reciprocal direction

A Solution for the 1:1 or M:M Interpersonal Unary Relationship

Data entry form allows for the specification of relationship in one direction

A Solution for the 1:1 or M:M Interpersonal Unary Relationship

Already-entered reciprocal relationships are shown to discourage duplicate entries

A Solution for the 1:1 or M:M Interpersonal Unary Relationship

A UNION query returns all records from both views
SELECT * FROM vueSecondPersonRelationship UNION SELECT * FROM vueFirstPersonRelationship; Must be entered in SQL view Normally, UNION query eliminates duplicate rows

A Solution for the 1:1 or M:M Interpersonal Unary Relationship

A UNION query returns all records from both views

There is only one relationship record for persons 1 and 2, but both directions of the relationship are returned