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Translation schemes and the fundamental problem of database design

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Conceptual Modeling — ER '96 (ER 1996)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 1157))

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Abstract

We introduce a new point of view into database schemes by applying systematically an old logical technique: translation schemes, and their induced formula and structure transformations. This allows us to re-examine the notion of dependency preserving decomposition and its generalization refinement.

The most important aspect of this approach lies in laying the groundwork for a formulation of the Fundamental Problem of Database Design, namely to exhibit desirable differences between translation-equivalent presentations of data and to examine refinements of data presentations in a systematic way. The emphasis in this paper is not on results. The main line of thought is an exploration of the use of an old logical tool in addressing the Fundamental Problem.

Translation schemes allow us to have a new look at normal forms of database schemes and to suggest a new line of search for other normal forms. Furthermore we give a characterization of the embedded implicational dependencies (EID's) using FD's and inclusion dependencies (ID's) and a basic class of refinements consisting of projections and natural joins.

Partially supported by a Grant of the German-Israel Foundation and by the Fund for Promotion of Research of the Technion-Israeli Institute of Technology

Partially supported by a Grant of the German-Israeli Foundation

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel

    J. A. Makowsky & E. V. Ravve

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  1. J. A. Makowsky
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  2. E. V. Ravve
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Bernhard Thalheim

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© 1996 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Makowsky, J.A., Ravve, E.V. (1996). Translation schemes and the fundamental problem of database design. In: Thalheim, B. (eds) Conceptual Modeling — ER '96. ER 1996. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1157. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0019911

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0019911

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-61784-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-70685-4

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