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How to build a beautiful database schema in yEd Graph Editor
- From the sandbox
- Tutorial
I want to show you how, with the help of the now popular yEd application, which is designed to build various diagrams and schemes, you can make a complete (with all the notation) database schema.
So, for starters, we have a standard container with elements for building an ERD (entity relationship diagram). Their designations are shown in the figure.
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A small digression, if you need to insert just text on the diagram, i.e. without any block, then the following simple steps from a comment from jaiprakash quickly solve this problem. “Select any link -> add label -> enter text -> convert to node.”
So, we pose the conditional task of constructing the following scheme.
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Create a framework of basic elements.
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In order to add the notation of primary and foreign keys you have to contrive a little. Selecting the desired element, add a new label to it, which we will call KEY. Because It will be located under the main unit, then select it using the clamped Ctr.
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Set its Placment (placement) by selecting Internal: top left (inside, top left), color as desired, Distance (distance from the edges) to zero, Insets (insertion in pixels) to 20 2 0 0 so that it is opposite the attribute field with a small distance, Font Family (font) set Segoe UI Symbol, because It accurately supports the necessary characters.
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Symbols for copying can be found, for example, in the Windows symbol table.
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Do the same with the arrows.
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In order to combine several tables into a block, you can use Grouping.
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The final version of the example is as follows. Everything is clear and beautiful :)
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I hope this short article will help some of the novice database designers. Thank you for your attention, I will be glad to comment.
So, for starters, we have a standard container with elements for building an ERD (entity relationship diagram). Their designations are shown in the figure.

A small digression, if you need to insert just text on the diagram, i.e. without any block, then the following simple steps from a comment from jaiprakash quickly solve this problem. “Select any link -> add label -> enter text -> convert to node.”
So, we pose the conditional task of constructing the following scheme.

Create a framework of basic elements.

In order to add the notation of primary and foreign keys you have to contrive a little. Selecting the desired element, add a new label to it, which we will call KEY. Because It will be located under the main unit, then select it using the clamped Ctr.
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Set its Placment (placement) by selecting Internal: top left (inside, top left), color as desired, Distance (distance from the edges) to zero, Insets (insertion in pixels) to 20 2 0 0 so that it is opposite the attribute field with a small distance, Font Family (font) set Segoe UI Symbol, because It accurately supports the necessary characters.
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Symbols for copying can be found, for example, in the Windows symbol table.
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Do the same with the arrows.
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In order to combine several tables into a block, you can use Grouping.
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The final version of the example is as follows. Everything is clear and beautiful :)
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I hope this short article will help some of the novice database designers. Thank you for your attention, I will be glad to comment.