Conceptual design of fuzzy object‐oriented databases using extended entity‐relationship model

Entity‐relationship–extended entity‐relationship models play a crucial role in the conceptual design of relational databases as well as object‐oriented databases. Recently, several approaches have been proposed to enhance object‐oriented databases (OODBs) using fuzzy set theory. In this paper, we introduce a fuzzy extended entity‐relationship model to cope with imperfect as well as complex objects in the real world at a conceptual level. In particular, we provide the formal approach to mapping a fuzzy extended entity‐relationship model to a fuzzy object‐oriented database schema. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.