There are three symbols used to show degree. A circle means zero, a line means one and a crowsfoot means many. The cardinality is shown next to the entity type and the optionality (if shown at all) is shown behind it. Refer to Fig. 3.10(a). In Fig. 3.10(b) the relationship type R has cardinality one-to-many because one A is related by R to many Bs and one B is related (by R's inverse) to one A. Generally, the degree of a relationship type is described by its cardinality. R would be called a 'one-many' or a 'one-to-many' or a '1 : N' relationship type. To fully describe the degree of a relationship type however we should also specify its optionality.