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Functional Dependencies

Last updated Dec 14, 2021 Edit Source

If you have two sets of attributes, call them $X$ and $Y$, id $Y$ functionally depends on $X$, then two tuples which agree on their $X$ values must also agree on their $Y$ values. A functional dependency(denoted using $X\to Y$) in subsets $X,Y\subseteq{A_1,…,A_n}$ means that for two arbitrary tuples $t_1$ and $t_2$: $$\pi_Xt_1 = \pi_Xt_2 \iff \pi_Yt_1 = \pi_Yt_2$$

If you don’t understand the notation, review Projection $\pi$ In plain english, this means that if the tuples have the same values for the attributes in X, they must also have the same values for Y.

X->Y means that: X functionally determines Y Y functionally depends on X X is the determinant and Y is the dependant in this relationship

Since functional dependencies are semantic(i.e. they depend on the real world knowledge), they are determined by the engineer of the schema and are manualy defined Integrity Constraits.

When you have the functional dependency X->Y in the relation R, X is a Super Keys in R.


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