Friday, June 25, 2010

DB Tables which are in 3NF or 4NF but not in DKNF

Are there examples of Relational tables which are in 3NF or 4NF but
not in Domain Key Normal Form?

Ans :
Yes. DKNF is unlike other normal forms because it is concerned with
constraints rather than purely FDs, MVDs and JDs. A relation schema is
in DKNF if all its constraints are equivalent to its key and domain
constraints only. According to Fagin (who invented DKNF) a DKNF schema
is automatically in 5NF but a 5NF schema is not necessarily in DKNF.

A trivial example of a relation in 5NF but not in DKNF is:
R{A,B} KEY {A,B}
with an inclusion dependency between A and B. In other words the constraint is:
project{A}( R ) = project{B}( R )

This constraint isn't implied by the key {A,B} therefore R is not in DKNF.

OR

P {A}
constraint: SUM(A)< 10

ie. The sum total of A must be less than 10

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