Error-Robust Functional Dependencies

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Hartmann, Sven | Link, Sebastian | Schewe, Klaus-Dieter | Thalheim, Bernhard

Affiliations: Massey University, Information Science Research Centre, Private Bag 11222, Palmerston North, New Zealand | Christian-Albrechts University Kiel, Institute of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics Olshausenstr. 40, 24098 Kiel, Germany

Abstract: A database user may be confronted with a relation that contains errors. These errors may result from transmission through a noisy channel, or they may have been added deliberately in order to hide or spoil information. Error-robust functional dependencies provide dependencies that still hold in the case of errors. The paper investigates the finite axiomatisation of such dependencies. It presents a sound and complete system of axioms and rules for the implication of error-robust dependencies including disjunctions.

Keywords:

Journal: Fundamenta Informaticae, vol. 59, no. 4, pp. 365-372, 2004