The ternary relationship of Figure ?? could be replaced by a pair of binary relationships, as shown in Figure ??.However, there is a distinction between the two representations:

• In Figure ??, relationship between a customer and account can be made only if there is a corresponding branch.
• In Figure ??, an account can be related to either a customer or a branch alone.
• The design of figure ?? is more appropriate, as in the banking world we expect to have an account relate to both a customer and a branch.

Figure 2.23:E-R diagram with account as a relationship set

The design of figure is more appropriate, as in the banking world we expect to have an account relate to both a customer and a branch.