GATE CS 2024 Set 2 Q10 — ER-model

In the Entity-Relationship (ER) model, a weak entity set is an entity set that does not possess sufficient attributes to form a primary key on its own. It depends on an identifying entity set (also called the owner entity set) for its existence.

Key properties of this relationship include:

• Identifying Relationship: The relationship associating the weak entity set with the identifying entity set.
• Total Participation of Weak Entity Set: Since a weak entity cannot exist without its corresponding owner entity, every entity in the weak entity set must be linked to an owner entity. Thus, the participation of the weak entity set in the identifying relationship is always total.
• Participation of Owner Entity Set: An owner entity can exist without being associated with any weak entity. Therefore, the participation of the owner entity set in the identifying relationship can be partial.

Hence, statement A is TRUE.