Databases are universal - they underlie the technology you use every day. They're a crucial component of everything from telecommunications systems, banking systems, and video games to just about any other software system that maintains some amount of persistent data.

In this course, you'll learn about the fundamental concepts of databases, why and when they're used, what relational databases are, and entity-relationship diagrams. You will also be exposed to techniques like normalization that help to increase the efficiency of databases. You'll wrap up with a look at the basics of Structured Query Language (SQL). 

After completing this course, you will be able to move onto more advanced courses involving database systems and SQL.

Database Design Fundamentals for Software Engineers

## Attributes

As stated in the previous lesson, each entity is described by a set of attributes. For example, the EMPLOYEE entity has attributes `Name`, `Address`, and `Salary`, etc.

Each attribute has a name, is associated with an entity, and has a range of values it is allowed to take (an employee's salary cannot be negative). However, information about the domain of an attribute is not presented in the ER diagram.

In the entity-relationship diagram shown below, each attribute is represented by an oval with a name inside.

# Attributes

As stated in the previous lesson, each entity is described by a set of attributes. For example, the EMPLOYEE entity has attributes `Name`, `Address`, and `Salary`, etc.

Each attribute has a name, is associated with an entity, and has a range of values it is allowed to take (an employee's salary cannot be negative). However, information about the domain of an attribute is not presented in the ER diagram.

In the entity-relationship diagram shown below, each attribute is represented by an oval with a name inside.

In this lesson, we discuss the different types of attributes present in an ER diagram.

Introduction

Fundamental Concepts

Data Modeling

Entity-Relationship Data Model

The Relational Data Model

Functional Dependencies

Normalization

Structured Query Language

Conclusion

Attributes

Attributes