Arrows are one of the main [[Diagram Semantic Mechanisms]]. They can be used in lots of different ways to mean lots of different things, but all those potential meanings essentially boil down to two (or three) top-level categories - relational & flow (and sequence). # Arrow Meaning Types ## Relational See: [[Entity Relationship Categories]] for a more complete list. - Composition - Association - Generalization/specialization - Labeled relationship - Constraint ## Flow - Object/energy flow - Data/information flow ## Sequence - This thing follows that thing, this is sort of like a flow & relationship at the same time, but a function with [[Arity]] = 3 (to, from, and context) - State/phase changes # Arrow Syntax Different [[Diagram Types (index)]] will use arrows for different (and potentially multiple) things, using different syntaxes. Unfortunately there is no such thing as a universal syntax, although there are some common conventions. I cover these in my [[Entity Relationship Categories]] note. If arrows carry semantic meaning, you should include a legend, like the [[C4 Model]] dude suggests. **** ## Source - self ## Related - [[Diagram Types (index)]]