Functional Dependency (FD) is a constraint that determines the relation of one attribute to another attribute in a Database Management System (DBMS). Functional Dependency helps to maintain the quality of data in the database. It plays a vital role to find the difference between good and bad database design.
A functional dependency is denoted by an arrow
Employee number | Employee name | Salary | City |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Dana | 50000 | San Francisco |
2 | Francis | 38000 | London |
3 | Andrew | 25000 | Tokyo |
In this example, if we know the value of Employee number, we can obtain Employee Name, city, salary, etc. By this, we can say that the city, Employee Name, and salary are functionally depended on Employee number.
Below are the Three most important rules for Functional Dependency in Database:
-
Reflexive rule: If
$X$ is a set of attributes and$Y$ is_subset_of$X$ , then$X$ holds a value of$Y$ . -
Augmentation rule: When
$x \to y$ holds, and$c$ is attribute set, then$ac \to bc$ also holds. That is adding attributes which do not change the basic dependencies. -
Transitivity rule: This rule is very much similar to the transitive rule
in algebra if
$x \to y$ holds and$y \to z$ holds, then$x \to z$ also holds.$X \to y$ is called as functionally that determines$y$ .
There are mainly four types of Functional Dependency in DBMS. Following are the types of Functional Dependencies in DBMS:
- Multivalued Dependency
- Trivial Functional Dependency
- Non-Trivial Functional Dependency
- Transitive Dependency
Multivalued dependency occurs in the situation where there are multiple independent multivalued attributes in a single table. A multivalued dependency is a complete constraint between two sets of attributes in a relation. It requires that certain tuples be present in a relation. Consider the following Multivalued Dependency Example to understand.
Car_model | Maf_year | Color |
---|---|---|
H001 | 2017 | Metallic |
H001 | 2017 | Green |
H005 | 2018 | Metallic |
H005 | 2018 | Blue |
H010 | 2015 | Metallic |
H033 | 2012 | Gray |
In this example, maf_year and color are independent of each other but dependent on car_model. In this example, these two columns are said to be multivalue dependent on car_model.
This dependence can be represented like this:
The Trivial dependency is a set of attributes which are called a trivial if the set of attributes are included in that attribute.
So,
For example:
Emp_id | Emp_name |
---|---|
AS555 | Harry |
AS811 | George |
AS999 | Kevin |
Consider this table of with two columns Emp_id and Emp_name.
{Emp_id, Emp_name} -> Emp_id is a trivial functional dependency as Emp_id is a
subset of {Emp_id,Emp_name}. Non Trivial Functional Dependency in DBMS
Functional dependency which also known as a nontrivial dependency occurs
when
Company | CEO | Age |
---|---|---|
Microsoft | Satya Nadella | 51 |
Sundar Pichai | 46 | |
Apple | Tim Cook | 57 |
(Company) -> {CEO} (if we know the Company, we knows the CEO name)
But CEO is not a subset of Company, and hence it's non-trivial functional dependency.
A Transitive Dependency is a type of functional dependency which happens when "t" is indirectly formed by two functional dependencies. Let's understand with the following Transitive Dependency Example.
Company | CEO | Age |
---|---|---|
Microsoft | Satya Nadella | 51 |
Sundar Pichai | 46 | |
Alibaba | Jack Ma | 54 |
{Company} → {CEO} (if we know the compay, we know its CEO's name)
{CEO } → {Age} If we know the CEO, we know the Age
Therefore according to the rule of rule of transitive dependency:
{ Company} → {Age} should hold, that makes sense because if we know the company name, we can know his age.
Note: You need to remember that transitive dependency can only occur in a relation of three or more attributes.