Abstract
We investigate the significance of requiring from a relational schema to comply with an entity-relationship structure. Relational database schemas here consist of traditional relational schemas together with key and inclusion dependencies. Such schemas are said to be entity-relationship (ER) consistent, either if they are the translate of, or if it is possible to translate them into, entity-relationship diagrams. An algorithm is presented which decides if a schema is ER-consistent and its complexity is discussed. ER-consistency expresses information structure normalization just as relational normal forms represent data representation normalization. For ER-consistent relational schemas we propose an Entity-Relationship Normal Form, and present the corresponding normalization procedure. ER-consistency expresses the capability of relational schemas to model information oriented systems. ER-consistent relational schemas allow the direct use of ER oriented query and update languages within the relational model.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
C. Beeri and M.Y. Vardi, "A note on decompositions of relations databases", ACM SIGMOD Record 12,1, Oct. 1981, pp. 33–37.
P.P. Chen, "The entity-relationship model-towards a unified view of data", ACM Trans. on Database Systems 1,1 (March 1976), pp. 9–36.
E.F. Codd, "Extending the relational database model to capture more meaning", ACM Trans. on Database Systems 4,4 (Dec 1979), pp. 397–434.
E.F. Codd, "Relational databases: A practical foundation for productivity", Comm. ACM 25,2 (Feb 1982), pp. 109–117.
S.S. Cosmadakis and P.C. Kanellakis, "Equational Theories and Database Constraints", in Proc 17th ACM Symposium on Theory of Computing, 1985, pp. 273–284.
M.A. Casanova and J.E. Amaral de Sa, "Mapping uninterpreted schemes into entity-relationship diagrams: two applications to conceptual schema design", IBM Journal of Research and Development 28, 1 (Jan 1984), pp. 82–94.
M.A. Casanova and V.M.P. Vidal, "Towards a sound view integration methodology", Proc of Second ACM Symposium on Principles of Database Systems, 1983, pp. 36–47.
A. Klug, "Entity-relationship views over uninterpreted enterprise schemas", Entity-Relationship Approach to Systems Analysis and Design, Chen, P.P.(ed.), North-Holland, 1980, pp. 39–59.
H. Mannila and K-J. Raiha, "Inclusion dependencies in database design", Proc of Second Conf. on Data Engineering, 1986, pp. 713–718.
J.C. Mitchell, "The implication problem for functional and inclusion dependencies", Information and Control 56,3 (March 1983), pp. 154–173.
N. Rotics, A unifying approach to the entity-relationship and relational data models, M.Sc. Thesis, Computer Science Dept, Technion, Israel, June 1985.
E. Sciore, "Inclusion dependencies and the universal instance", in Proc. 1983 ACM Symposium on Principles of Database Systems, 1983, pp. 48–57.
D.C. Tsichritzis and F.H. Lochovsky, Data models. Prentice-Hall, 1982.
J.D. Ullman, Principles of database systems (second edition), Computer Science Press, 1982.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1986 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Makowsky, J.A., Markowitz, V.M., Rotics, N. (1986). Entity-relationship consistency for relational schemas. In: Ausiello, G., Atzeni, P. (eds) ICDT '86. ICDT 1986. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 243. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-17187-8_43
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-17187-8_43
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-17187-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-47346-6
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive