Entity

An entity is something that has a distinct, separate existence, though it need not be a material existence. In particular, abstractions are usually regarded as entities.

Entities are often used when considering system developmental models, for example when considering communications and internal processing in a system.

In object based systems each entity is considered as a separate object. The behaviour of these is encoded as methods while their static contents are called attributes.

Links to this page

The following pages link to here: Attribute, Class, Classification, Data Form, Data Migration, Format, Knowledge Based Systems, Mandatory Attribute, Metaphor, Method, Object Oriented Database, Optional Attribute, Owner, Relationship, Stakeholder, System Behaviour, UML Behaviour Diagrams, UML Communication Diagram, UML Interaction Diagrams, Unified Modeling Language, Uses for IA, XML