Every once in awhile, I have to draw a UML diagram. I rarely do serious designs with UML, however sometimes I do need to depict some piece of code in a diagram and UML seems to be the best notation around.
Unfortunately, various sources of information on UML tend to over-complicate things. I am not software architect and drawing UMLs is not my job. So my UML skills are poor by definition. Moreover, I am happy with this situation and don’t see it changing in the future (even if I get promoted 
).
So from time to time I need a simple UML reference card. Simple search finds references like this one, which are excellent if you are serious about UML, and I am not.
Eventually, I decided to write a short UML class diagram reference card for myself. I hope you will enjoy it as well.
Inheritance
So, this is how classes inherit one from another. Here Child class inherits from Parent Class.
Use
This is how User class uses Resource class.
Contains and manages
Here, Whole class contains and manages Part class. This type of relation can be extended to one of the following:
- One to One
- One to Many
- Many to One
- Many to Many
References
Here, Whole class references to Part class, but does not manage it. Again, can be extended with:
- One to One
- One to Many
- Many to One
- Many to Many
This is enough information for now. I’ll probably extend it over time. In any case, please post your corrections and suggestions.