Difference Between One-to-Many, Many-to-One and Many-to-Many?

Question

Ok so this is probably a trivial question but I\'m having trouble visualizing and understanding the differences and when to use each. I\'m also a little unclear as to how co

Answer 1

Take a look at this article: Mapping Object Relationships

There are two categories of object relationships that you need to be concerned with when mapping. The first category is based on multiplicity and it includes three types:

*One-to-one relationships.  This is a relationship where the maximums of each of its multiplicities is one, an example of which is holds relationship between Employee and Position in Figure 11.  An employee holds one and only one position and a position may be held by one employee (some positions go unfilled).
*One-to-many relationships. Also known as a many-to-one relationship, this occurs when the maximum of one multiplicity is one and the other is greater than one.  An example is the works in relationship between Employee and Division.  An employee works in one division and any given division has one or more employees working in it.
*Many-to-many relationships. This is a relationship where the maximum of both multiplicities is greater than one, an example of which is the assigned relationship between Employee and Task.  An employee is assigned one or more tasks and each task is assigned to zero or more employees. 

The second category is based on directionality and it contains two types, uni-directional relationships and bi-directional relationships.

*Uni-directional relationships.  A uni-directional relationship when an object knows about the object(s) it is related to but the other object(s) do not know of the original object.  An example of which is the holds relationship between Employee and Position in Figure 11, indicated by the line with an open arrowhead on it.  Employee objects know about the position that they hold, but Position objects do not know which employee holds it (there was no requirement to do so).  As you will soon see, uni-directional relationships are easier to implement than bi-directional relationships.
*Bi-directional relationships.  A bi-directional relationship exists when the objects on both end of the relationship know of each other, an example of which is the works in relationship between Employee and Division.  Employee objects know what division they work in and Division objects know what employees work in them.