C ARNEGIE M ELLON U NIVERSITY

D EPARTMENT OF C OMPUTER S CIENCE

15-445/645 – DATABASE S YSTEMS (FALL 2017)
P ROF. A NDY PAVLO

Homework 2 (by Prashasthi Prabhakar) – Solutions

Due: Wednesday Sep 20, 2017 @ 11:59pm

IMPORTANT:
• Upload a PDF of your answers to Gradescope by 11:59pm on Wednesday Sep 20, 2017.
• Plagiarism: Homework may be discussed with other students, but all homework is to be
completed individually.
• Typeset all your answers.
For your information:
• Graded out of 100 points; 4 questions total
• Rough time estimate: ≈1-4 hours (0.5-1 hours for each question)
Revision : 2017/10/22 09:40

Question Points Score

Functional Dependencies I 15
Functional Dependencies II 32
Decompositions 20
Normal Forms 33
Total: 100

1
15-445/645 (Fall 2017) Homework 2 Page 2 of 6

Question 1: Functional Dependencies I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [15 points]

GRADED BY: Mengran
Consider the following legal instance of a relational schema S with attributes XY Z:

S X Y Z
m 20 T
m 10 F
o 30 T
n 30 T
o 20 T
Table 1: Legal instance of schema S for question 2.1

(a) Which of the following dependencies are violated by the instances of S in Table 1?
i. [2 points]  Yes 2 No : X → Y is violated.
ii. [2 points]  Yes 2 No : Z → X is violated.
iii. [2 points] 2 Yes  No : Y → Z is violated.
iv. [2 points] 2 Yes  No : XY → Z is violated.
v. [2 points]  Yes 2 No : Y Z → X is violated.
vi. [2 points]  Yes 2 No : XZ → Y is violated.
(b) [3 points] By only observing the instance of S in Table 1, can you identify the functional
dependencies that hold on schema S? Why?
2 Yes  No

Solution: No, because we can only see an instance.

Homework 2 continues. . .
15-445/645 (Fall 2017) Homework 2 Page 3 of 6

Question 2: Functional Dependencies II . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [32 points]

GRADED BY: Allison
For the next set of questions consider the relational schema R = {P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W } and
the set of functional dependencies FD:

Q → U (1)
U → V (2)
PQ → W ST (3)
SU → TR (4)
VT → RW (5)
R → W (6)

(a) [8 points] Which of the following is a minimum cover of the FD? Mark all that qualify;
if none, mark accordingly, and give your own. answer.
i. The given FDs (Eq 1-6), is a minimum cover already.
ii. {Q → U, U → V, P Q → S, SU → T, SU → R, V T → R, V T → W, R → W }
iii. {Q → U, U → V, P Q → S, SU → T, P Q → W, V T → R, P Q → T, R → W }
iv. {Q → U, U → V, P Q → S, SU → T, V T → R, R → W }
v. {Q → U, U → V, P Q → S, SU → T, SU → R, V T → R, P Q → T, R → W }
vi. none of the above - the cover is
Solution: iv
(b) Yes/No: Which of the following functional dependencies can be deduced, from the above
set of functional dependencies (Eq. (1)-(6))?
i. [3 points]  Yes 2 No : Q → V
ii. [3 points] 2 Yes  No : QU → R
iii. [3 points]  Yes 2 No : SQ → T
iv. [3 points]  Yes 2 No : SQ → W
v. [3 points]  Yes 2 No : P Q → R
vi. [3 points] 2 Yes  No : V T → Q
(c) [3 points] True or False: The attribute closure {Q}+ is {Q, U, V }.
 True 2 False
(d) [3 points] True or False: The attribute closure {P Q}+ is {P, Q, W, S, T }.
2 True  False
Grading info: It is {P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W }.

Homework 2 continues. . .
15-445/645 (Fall 2017) Homework 2 Page 4 of 6

Question 3: Decompositions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [20 points]

GRADED BY: Prashasthi
For this set of questions, consider the relation with attributes, X = {A, B, C, D, E, F }, Let
the following functional dependencies F D be defined over the relation X :

A→B
B → CD
E→F

(a) [2 points] Provide the attribute closure of {AB}.

Solution: {AB}+ = {ABCD}

(b) Consider the decomposition AB, BCD, EF . Mark ’True’ or ’False’:

i. [3 points] 2 True  False : It is lossless
ii. [3 points]  True 2 False : It is dependency-preserving
(c) Consider the decomposition AB, BCDF , EF . Mark ’True’ or ’False’:
i. [3 points] 2 True  False : It is lossless
ii. [3 points]  True 2 False : It is dependency-preserving
(d) Consider the decomposition ABCEF , EBD. Mark ’True’ or ’False’:
i. [3 points]  True 2 False : It is lossless
ii. [3 points]  True 2 False : It is dependency-preserving

Homework 2 continues. . .
15-445/645 (Fall 2017) Homework 2 Page 5 of 6

Question 4: Normal Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [33 points]

GRADED BY: Leon
Consider the relation with attributes, E = {P, Q, R, S}. Suppose that the following functional
dependencies hold:

PQ → R (7)
PQ → S (8)
R → P (9)
S → Q (10)

(a) [6 points] List all the candidate key(s) for E.

Solution: {P Q} , {QR} , {RS} , {P S}
Grading info: -2: for each missing candidate key
(b) [2 points] Is the relation E in BCNF? 2 Yes  No
(c) From the list below, select all applicable choices to justify whether E is (or is not) in
BCNF.
Note: when we refer to the main requirement for BCNF, we mean: every determinant is
a super key.
i. [1 point] 2 True  False : All FD’s satisfy the main requirement.
ii. [1 point] 2 True  False : FD (7) violates the main requirement.
iii. [1 point] 2 True  False : FD (8) violates the main requirement.
iv. [1 point]  True 2 False : FD (9) violates the main requirement.
v. [1 point]  True 2 False : FD (10) violates the main requirement.
(d) [2 points] Is the relation E in 3NF?  Yes 2 No
(e) From the list below, select all applicable choices to justify whether E is (or is not) in 3NF.
Note: when we refer to the secondary requirement for 3NF, we mean: for every FD
X → A, A is part of a candidate key.
i. [1 point]  True 2 False : All FD’s satisfy the secondary requirement.
ii. [1 point] 2 True  False : FD (7) violates the secondary requirement.
iii. [1 point] 2 True  False : FD (8) violates the secondary requirement.
iv. [1 point] 2 True  False : FD (9) violates the secondary requirement.
v. [1 point] 2 True  False : FD (10) violates the secondary requirement.
(f) [5 points] Give a 3NF decomposition of E that is lossless, dependency preserving, and
has as few tables as possible.
Solution: E1,1 =(P, Q, R, S)
Grading info: -1: 3NF decomposition with 2 tables; -3: 3NF decomposition more than with 2
tables; -4: 3NF decomposition with more than 5 tables

Question 4 continues. . .
15-445/645 (Fall 2017) Homework 2 Page 6 of 6

(g) [8 points] Give a BCNF decomposition of E that is lossless, and has as few tables as
possible.
Solution: E1,1 =(P, R), E1,2 =(Q, S), E1,3 =(R, S)
Grading info: -5: BCNF decomposition with more than 3 tables

End of Homework 2