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Algorithms for Database Keys Discovery Assistance

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Perspectives in Business Informatics Research (BIR 2016)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing ((LNBIP,volume 261))

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Abstract

Only humans may decide whether a column or a set of columns of a table should store minimally unique values. Not adding to a table any existing constraint (business rule), which includes keys, allows for storing implausible instances in it. Unfortunately, 2n possibilities should be considered in the worst case for a table with n columns in order to discover all of its keys. This paper presents and discusses contrastively three as efficient as possible, sound, and complete algorithms that assist database designers in discovering all existing keys in the corresponding subuniverse of discourse.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mathematics and Computer Science Department, Ovidius University, Constanta, Romania

    Christian Mancas

Authors
  1. Christian Mancas
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Correspondence to Christian Mancas .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Information Technology, University of Economics, Prague 3, Czech Republic

    Václav Řepa

  2. Department of Information Technology, University of Economics, Prague 3, Praha, Czech Republic

    Tomáš Bruckner

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Mancas, C. (2016). Algorithms for Database Keys Discovery Assistance. In: Řepa, V., Bruckner, T. (eds) Perspectives in Business Informatics Research. BIR 2016. Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing, vol 261. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-45321-7_23

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