DerSql, Generating SQL from an Entity-Relation Diagram

The automatic code generation is the process of generating source code snippets from a program, i.e., code for generating code. Its importance lies in facilitating software development, particularly important is helping in the implementation of software designs such as engineering diagrams, in such a case, automatic code generation copes with the problem of how to obtain code from a graphic representation, for instance an UML diagram or a Relational Diagram. Some advantages of automatic code generation are: a) to obtain the source code more quickly and to do it with lower margins of error; b) it is promising to be applied in teaching contexts, whilst provide instructors with a tool to teach, the expected results of assignments can be assessed by comparing the results of students and the automatic generated code. Furthermore, one of the most frequently tasks in classrooms when teaching relational databases is the design of Entity-Relationship Diagrams which eventually become SQL code. The manual transition from an Entity-Relationship Diagram to SQL code is a time-consuming process and requires of a skilled eye to be successfully performed. In this paper, we present "DerSql," an extension of the DIA Diagrammer, a well-known free software engineering tool, to automatically generate SQL code from an Entity-Relationship Diagrams. The results are tested for the case of 1 -- 1 and 1 -- n arities relationships. We consider that "DerSql" represents a remarkable tool for teaching while it is a promising advance in developing DIA as a 4th Generation software engineering application. [For the full proceedings, see ED638044.]