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Designing alpha-acyclic BCNF-database schemes

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MFDBS 87 (MFDBS 1987)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 305))

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Abstract

The problem of designing database schemes satisfying the three design properties lossless join, Boyce-Codd normal form and α-acyclicity is considered. First, it is shown by a sample relation scheme, that these three properties are not always obtainable. This result is independent of any design method. Secondly, the problem of using the BCNF-decomposition algorithm for designing database schemes, which are additionally α-acyclic, is investigated. A characterization of those decomposotion processes yielding α-acyclic, lossless database schemes is given.

The main result of the paper is, that for each relation scheme an α-acyclic, lossless BCNF-database scheme can be constructed. This goal is reached by using the concept of lattice compatible augmentation, cf. /KaMa 80/, i.e. the original relation scheme is expanded by additional surrogate attributes (and related functional dependencies). Moreover, this result yields a modified two phase BCNF-decomposition algorithm.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. IBM Almaden Research Center, San Jose, California

    Detlev Ruland

  2. Lehrstuhl für Informatik I, University Würzburg, D-8700, Würzburg, W.-Germany

    Dietmar Seipel

Authors
  1. Detlev Ruland
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  2. Dietmar Seipel
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Editor information

J. Biskup J. Demetrovics J. Paredaens B. Thalheim

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© 1988 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Ruland, D., Seipel, D. (1988). Designing alpha-acyclic BCNF-database schemes. In: Biskup, J., Demetrovics, J., Paredaens, J., Thalheim, B. (eds) MFDBS 87. MFDBS 1987. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 305. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-19121-6_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-19121-6_11

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-19121-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-39124-1

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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