Partial dependencies in relational databases and their realization

Abstract

Weakening the functional dependencies introduced by Amstrong we get the notion of the partial dependencies defined on the relational databases. We show that the partial dependencies can be characterized by the closure operations of the poset formed by the partial functions on the attributes of the databases. On the other hand, we give necessary and sufficient conditions so that for such a closure operation one can find on the given set of attributes a database whose partial dependencies generate the given closure operation. We also investigate some questions about how to realize certain structures related to databases by a database of minimal number of rows, columns or elements.