A Unified Approach to Functional Dependencies and Relations.

Philip A. Bernstein, J. Richard Swenson, Dennis Tsichritzis: A Unified Approach to Functional Dependencies and Relations. SIGMOD Conference 1975: 237-245

@inproceedings{DBLP:conf/sigmod/BernsteinST75,
  author    = {Philip A. Bernstein and
               J. Richard Swenson and
               Dennis Tsichritzis},
  editor    = {W. Frank King},
  title     = {A Unified Approach to Functional Dependencies and Relations},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of the 1975 ACM SIGMOD International Conference on
               Management of Data, San Jose, California, May 14-16, 1975},
  publisher = {ACM},
  year      = {1975},
  pages     = {237-245},
  ee        = {http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/500080.500112, db/conf/sigmod/BernsteinST75.html},
  crossref  = {DBLP:conf/sigmod/75},
  bibsource = {DBLP, http://dblp.uni-trier.de}
}

Abstract

In Codd's relational model, the relation name groups together a family of functional dependencies over a set of attributes. For integrity and for maintenance purposes it is important to eliminate inherent redundancy within a relation due to the repetition of instances of a functional connection between attributes. This led Codd to propose a series of three normalizations. The manipulation of normal forms is governed by functional dependencies that are explicitly declared to exist within the relation. Since functional dependencies completely govern the decomposition rules of normalization , perhaps it is more sensible to take them as the elementary notions to be later synthesized into more complex structures, such as relations. Our goals, then are twofold. First, we will discuss how the use of functional dependencies lends itself to a rigorous and correct, yet clear and simple description of complex data relationships. Second, we will outline some new computational techniques to map functional dependencies into normal form relations algorithmically, thus allowing us to use the dependencies as a basic unit on the implementation as well as conceptual level.

Copyright © 1975 by the ACM, Inc., used by permission. Permission to make digital or hard copies is granted provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or direct commercial advantage, and that copies show this notice on the first page or initial screen of a display along with the full citation.

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Contents

References

[1]: William Ward Armstrong: Dependency Structures of Data Base Relationships. IFIP Congress 1974: 580-583
[2]: ...
[3]: E. F. Codd: A Relational Model of Data for Large Shared Data Banks. Commun. ACM 13(6): 377-387(1970)
[4]: E. F. Codd: Further Normalization of the Data Base Relational Model. IBM Research Report, San Jose, California RJ909: (1971)
[5]: ...
[6]: ...
[7]: ...
[8]: ...
[9]: Sartaj Sahni: Some Related Problems from Network Flows, Game Theory and Integer Programming. FOCS 1972: 130-138
[10]: Hans Albrecht Schmid, J. Richard Swenson: On the Semantics of the Relational Data Model. SIGMOD Conference 1975: 211-223
[11]: ...