Database Systems and Applications

Lecture 17 Decomposition

What is Decomposition?

Decomposition the process of breaking down in parts or elements. Decomposition in database means breaking tables down into multiple tables From Database perspective means going to a higher normal form

Decomposition
Important that decompositions are good, Two Characteristics of Good Decompositions 1) Lossless 2) Preserve dependencies

Problems with Decomposition

Some queries become more expensive Given instances of the decomposed relations, we may not be able to reconstruct the corresponding instance of the original relation information loss.

What is lossless?

Lossless means functioning without a loss. In other words, retain everything. Important for databases to have this feature.

Lossless Decomposition
A decomposition is lossless if we can recover: R(A,B,C)
Decompose

R1(A,B)

R2(A,C)
Recover

R(A,B,C) should be the same as R(A,B,C)

Must ensure R = R

Lossless Decomposition
Sometimes the same set of data is reproduced:
Name Word Oracle Access Name Word Oracle Access Price 100 1000 100 Price 100 1000 100 Category WP DB DB Name Word Oracle Access Category WP DB DB

(Word, 100) + (Word, WP) (Word, 100, WP) (Oracle, 1000) + (Oracle, DB) (Oracle, 1000, DB) (Access, 100) + (Access, DB) (Access, 100, DB)

Lossy Decomposition
Sometimes its not:
Name Word Oracle Access Category WP DB Name Word Oracle Access Price 100 1000 100 Category WP DB DB Category WP DB DB Price 100 1000 100

Whats wrong?

DB

(Word, WP) + (100, WP) = (Word, 100, WP) (Oracle, DB) + (1000, DB) = (Oracle, 1000, DB) (Oracle, DB) + (100, DB) = (Oracle, 100, DB) (Access, DB) + (1000, DB) = (Access, 1000, DB) (Access, DB) + (100, DB) = (Access, 100, DB)

Lossy Decomposition T Employee Samu Soumini Soumini Sekhar Sekhar Project Mars Jupiter Venus Saturn Venus Branch Warangal Hyderabad Hyderabad Hyderabad Hyderabad
Branch

Functional dependencies: Employee Branch,

Proje ct

Lossy Decomposition
Decomposition of the previous relation

T1
Employee Samu Soumini Sekhar Branch Warangal Hyderabad Hyderabad Project Mars Jupiter Saturn Venus

T2
Branch Warangal Hyderabad Hyderabad Hyderabad

Lossy Decomposition After Natural Join

Employee Samu Soumini Soumini Sekhar Sekhar Soumini Sekhar Project Mars Jupiter Venus Saturn Venus Saturn Jupiter Branch Warangal Hyderabad Hyderabad Hyderabad Hyderabad Hyderabad Hyderabad

Original Relation
Employee Samu Soumini Soumini Sekhar Sekhar Project Mars Jupiter Venus Saturn Venus Branch Warangal Hyderabad Hyderabad Hyderabad Hyderabad

The result is different from the original relation: the information can not be reconstructed.

Lossless Decomposition Property

The decomposition of R into R1 and R2 is lossless with respect to F if and only if the closure of F contains either: R1 R2 (R1 intersect R2) R1, that is: all attributes common to both R1 and R2 functionally determine ALL the attributes in R1 OR R1 R2 (R1 intersect R2) R2, that is: all attributes common to both R1 and R2 functionally determine ALL the attributes in R2

Ensuring lossless decomposition

R(A1,, ..., An,, B1,, ..., Bm,, C1,, ..., Cp)) R(A1 ..., An B1 ..., Bm C1 ..., Cp

R11(A1, ..., Ann, B11, ..., Bm)) R (A1, ..., A , B , ..., Bm

R22(A1, ..., Ann, C11, ..., Cpp) R (A1, ..., A , C , ..., C )

If A1, ..., An B1, ..., Bm or A1, ..., An C1, ..., Cp Then the decomposition is lossless Note: dont need both

In Simpler Terms

R1 R2 R1 R1 R2 R2 If R is split into R1 and R2, for the decomposition to be lossless then at least one of the two should hold true. Projecting on R1 and R2, and joining back, results in the relation you started with

Why lossless?

Ensures that attributes involved in the natural join (R1 R2) are a candidate key for at least one of the two relations. This ensures we can never get the situation where false tuples are generated, as for any value on the join attributes there will be a unique tuple in one of the relations.

Example of Lossless Decomposition

GIVEN: LENDINGSCHEME=(BRANCHNAME, ASSETS, BRANCHCITY, LOANNUMBER, CUSTOMERNAME, AMOUNT) FD'S: BRANCHNAME ASSETS BRANCHCITY LOANNUMBER AMOUNT BRANCHNAME DECOMPOSE LENDINGSCHEME INTO: 1. BRANCHSCHEME=(BRANCHNAME, ASSETS, BRANCHCITY) 2. BORROWSCHEME=(BRANCHNAME, LOANNUMBER, CUSTOMERNAME, AMOUNT)

Example of Lossless Decomposition

SHOW THAT THE DECOMPOSITION IS A LOSSLESS DECOMPOSITION USE AUGMENTATION RULE ON FIRST FD TO OBTAIN: BRANCHNAME BRANCHNAME ASSETS BRANCHCITY INTERSECTION OF BRANCHSCHEME AND BORROWSCHEME IS BRANCHNAME BRANCHNAME BRANCHSCHEME SO, INITIAL DECOMPOSITION IS A LOSSLESS

Example 2
GIVEN: BORROWSCHEME=(BRANCHNAME, LOANNUMBER, CUSTOMERNAME, AMOUNT) FD'S: LOANNUMBER AMOUNT BRANCHNAME

DECOMPOSE BORROWSCHEME INTO: 1. LOAN-INFO-SCHEME=(BRANCHNAME, LOANNUMBER, AMOUNT) 2. CUSTOMER-LOAN-SCHEME=(LOANNUMBER, CUSTOMERNAME)

Example 2 (cont)
SHOW THAT THE DECOMPOSITION IS A LOSSLESS DECOMPOSITION 1. USE AUGMENTATION RULE ON FD TO OBTAIN: LOANNUMBER LOANNUMBER AMOUNT BRANCHNAME 1. INTERSECTION OF LOAN-INFO-SCHEME AND CUSTOMERLOAN-SCHEME IS LOANNUMBER 1. LOANNUMBER LOAN-INFO-SCHEME 1. SO, INITIAL DECOMPOSITION IS A LOSSLESS

Example
R1 (A1, A2, A3, A5) R2 (A1, A3, A4) R3 (A4, A5) FD1: A1 A3 A5 FD2: A5 A1 A4 FD3: A3 A4 A2

Example (cont)
A1 R1 R2 R3 a(1) a(1) b(3,1) A2 a(2) b(2,2) b(3,2) A3 a(3) a(3) b(3,3) A4 b(1,4) a(4) a(4) A5 a(5) b(2,5) a(5)

Example (cont)
By FD1: A1 A3 A5

A1 R1 R2 R3 a(1) a(1) b(3,1)

A2 a(2) b(2,2) b(3,2)

A3 a(3)

A4

A5 b(1,4) a(4) a(4) a(5) b(2,5) a(5)

a(3) b(3,3)

Example (cont)
By FD1: A1 A3 A5 we have a new result table A1 R1 R2 R3 a(1) a(1) b(3,1) A2 a(2) b(2,2) b(3,2) A3 a(3) a(3) b(3,3) A4 A5 b(1,4) a(4) a(4) a(5) a(5) a(5)

Example (cont)
By FD2: A5 A1 A4

A1 R1 R2 R3 a(1) a(1) b(3,1)

A2 a(2) b(2,2) b(3,2)

A3 a(3)

A4

A5 b(1,4) a(4) a(4) a(5) a(5) a(5)

a(3) b(3,3)

Example (cont)
By FD2: A5 A1 A4 we have a new result table A1 R1 R2 R3 a(1) a(1) a(1) A2 a(2) b(2,2) b(3,2) A3 a(3) a(3) b(3,3) A4 a(4) a(4) a(4) A5 a(5) a(5) a(5)

Example 1
R(A B C D E) FD1 = (A B) FD2 = (BC E) FD3 = (ED A) R1=(AB); R2=(ACDE);

Example 2
Is this decomposition lossless? R (A B C D E) FD1 AB C FD2 C E FD3 BD FD4 EA R1=(BCD); R2=(ACE);

Example 3
R(A B C D E) FD1: A BC FD2: BD CE FD3: E AD FD4: CE A R1(ABC) = R2 (BCDE) =

Conclusion
Decomposing is the act of breaking tables down in order to achieve higher normal form. Decompositions should always be lossless. This confirms that information in the original relation can be accurately reconstructed based on the decomposed relations. Remember that for a decomposition to be considered GOOD it must also preserve functional dependencies.