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Discovering functional and inclusion dependencies in relational databases
Author(s) -
Kantola Martti,
Mannila Heikki,
Räihä KariJouko,
Siirtola Harri
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
international journal of intelligent systems
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.291
H-Index - 87
eISSN - 1098-111X
pISSN - 0884-8173
DOI - 10.1002/int.4550070703
Subject(s) - functional dependency , computer science , database schema , database , relational database , database design , dependency theory (database theory) , schema (genetic algorithms) , database theory , data mining , theoretical computer science , information retrieval
We consider the problem of discovering the functional and inclusion dependencies that a given database instance satisfies. This technique is used in a database design tool that uses example databases to give feedback to the designer. If the examples show deficiencies in the design, the designer can directly modify the examples. the tool then infers new dependencies and the database schema can be modified, if necessary. the discovery of the functional and inclusion dependencies can also be used in analyzing an existing database. the problem of inferring functional dependencies has several connections to other topics in knowledge discovery and machine learning. In this article we discuss the use of examples in the design of databases, and give an overview of the complexity results and algorithms that have been developed for this problem. © 1992 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.