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If only given a schema (table header, with primary key indicated), how do I find functional dependencies?
My problem is that functional dependencies are determined in terms of the data stored in the relevant table, and so you could not determine all, but only some functional dependencies by looking at the schema only?
Consider this example:
How do I go about finding the applicable functional dependencies?
You can't tell the functional dependencies just from the schema.
If you knew that the schema was in third normal form (3NF) or higher and you knew that there are no other candidate keys other than the primary key, then you would know that every non-key attribute was fully functionally dependent on the primary key.
Except for this particular situation, there is nothing about a schema that conveys functional dependency. The purpose of a schema is to convey table structure, not functional dependencies.
(bday, firstname, lastname) -> email and (bday, firstname, lastname) -> street_no (and all other trivial and derived dependencies), correct? It doesn't matter that we don't know if there are other candidate keys. We still know one key.
Feb 13, 2019 at 21:13
bday, firstname, lastname you will presumably find an email (if it's mandatory). Still, wouldn't you want to move email out into its own entity and implement a m:n intersection to avoid potential data change anomalies?
Feb 14, 2019 at 0:20