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DBMS It 405

DBMS

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22 views4 pages

DBMS It 405

DBMS

Uploaded by

vj833930
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Finding Candidate Key (s) of a relation R using Functional

Dependancey Set F
A candidate key of a relation schema R is a subset X of the attributes of R with the
following two properties:
1. Every attribute is functionally dependent on X, i.e., X+= all attributes of R (also
denoted as X+= R).
2. No proper subset of X has the property (1), i.e., X is minimal with respect to
the property (1) or No proper subset of X has contain any key of R
A sub-key of R is a subset of a candidate key.
A super-key is a set of attributes containing a candidate key.
For example, Let R(ABCDE) be a relation schema and consider the following
functional dependencies F = {AB → E, AD → B, B → C, C → D}.

Here you will write the procedure to find out closure of attribute
Since (AC)+ =ACDBE, (AB)+ =ABECD, (AD)+ =ADBCE
we know that AC is a candidate key, both A and C are sub-keys,
AB is a candidate key, both A and B are sub-keys,
ADis a candidate key, both A and D are sub-keys,
So sub keys of relation R={A, B, C, D}.
ABC is a super-key because A, B, C are the set of attributes containing a
candidate key of relation R.
Note that since nothing determines A, A is in every candidate key.
Please note that ABC, ABD, ACD,& ABCD are not a candidate key bacause it proper
subset contain a key i.e AB, AC & AD
Computing All Candidate Keys of a Relation R.
Necessary attributes: An attribute A is said to be a necessary attribute if
(a) A occurs only in the L.H.S. (left hand side) of the fd’s in F;
or
(b) A is an attribute in relation R, but A does not occur in either L.H.S. or R.H.S. of
any fd in F.
In other words, necessary attributes NEVER occur in the R.H.S. of any fd in F.
Useless attributes: An attribute A is a useless attribute if A occurs ONLY in the
R.H.S. of fd’s in F.
Middle-ground attributes: An attribute A in relation R is a middle-ground attribute
if A is neither necessary nor useless.
Example. Consider the relation R(ABCDEG) with set of fd’sF = {AB → C, C → D,
AD → E}
Necessary attributes Useless attributes Middle-ground attributes
A, B, G E C, D
The algorithm for computing all candidate keys of R.
Input:Arelation R={ A1, A2, ..., An}, and F, a set of functionaldependencies.
Output: K={ K1,..., Kt}, the set of all candidate keys of R.
Step1. Set F′ to a minimal cover of F(This is needed because otherwise we may not
detect all useless attributes).
Step2. Partition all attributes in R into necessary, useless and middle-ground attribute
sets according to F′. Let X={ C1 ,...,Cl} be the necessary attribute set, Y = {B1 , ...,
Bk} be the useless attribute set, and M = {A1 , ..., An} − (X ∪ Y) be the middle-
ground attribute set. If X={}, then go to step4.
Step3. Compute X+. If X+ =R, then set K= {X}, terminate.
Step4. Let L = 〈Z1 , Z2 ,..., Zm〉 be the list of all non-empty subsets of M (the middle-
ground attributes) such that L is arranged in ascending order of the size of Zi . Add all
attributes in X (necessary attributes) to each Zi in L.
Set K = {}.
i ← 0.
WHILE (L ≠ empty)
do BEGIN
i ← i+1.
Remove the first element Z from L.
Compute Z +. If Z + = R,
then
begin
set K ← K ∪ {Z};
for any Z j ∈ L, if Z ⊂ Z j
then L ← L − {Z j}.
end
END
Example. (Computing all candidate keys of R.)
Let R = R(ABCDEG) and F = {AB → CD, A → B, B → C, C → E, BD → A}. The
process to compute all candidate keys ofRis as follows:
(1) The minimal cover ofFis {A → B, A → D, B → C, C → E, BD → A}.
(2) Since attribute G never appears in any fd’s in the set of functional dependencies,
G must be included in a candidate key of R. The attribute E appears only in the right
hand side of fd’s and hence E is not in any key of R. No attribute of R appears only in
the left hand side of the set of fd’s. Therefore X=G at the end of step 2.
(3) Compute G+ = G, so Gis not a candidate key.
(4) The following table shows the L, K, Z and Z + at the very beginning of each
i Z Z+ L K
0 - - 〈AG, BG, CG, {}
DG, ABG, ACG,
ADG, BCG,
BDG, CDG,
ABCG, ABDG,
ACDG, BCDG,
ABCDG〉
1 AG ABCDEG = R 〈BG, CG, DG, {AG}
BCG, BDG,
CDG,BCDG〉
2 BG BCEG ≠ R 〈CG, DG, BCG, {AG}
BDG, CDG,
BCDG〉
3 CG CEG ≠ R 〈DG, BCG, BDG, {AG}
CDG, BCDG〉
4 DG DG ≠ R 〈BCG, BDG, {AG}
CDG, BCDG〉
5 BCG BCEG ≠ R 〈BDG, CDG, {AG}
BCDG〉
6 BDG ABCDEG = R 〈CDG〉 {AG, BDG}
7 CDG CEDG ≠ R 〈〉 {AG, BDG}

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