CIT 381 Chapter 6, Database Systems: Design, Implementation, and
Management
1. Atomic Attribute: An attribute that cannot be further subdivided to produce meaningful components. For
example a person's last name attribute cannot be meaningfully subdivided.
2. Aomicity: The transaction property that requires all parts of a transaction to be treated as a single indivisible
logical unit of work. All parts of a transaction must be completed or the entire transaction is aborted.
3. Boyce-Codd Normal Form (BCNF): A special type of third normal form (3NF) in which every
determinant is a candidate key. A table in BCNF must be in 3NF. See also determinant.
4. Denormalization: A process by which a table is changed from a higher-level normal form to a lower-level
normal form, usually to increase processing speed. Denormalization potentially yields data anomalies.
5. Dependency Diagram: A representation of all data dependencies (primary key, partial, or transitive) within
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, a table. )
6. Determinant: Any attribute in a specific row whose value directly determines other values in that row.. See also
Boyce-Codd Normal Form (BCNF)
7. First Normal Form (1NF): Te first stage in the normalization process. It describes a relation depicted in
tabular format, with no repeating group and a primary key identified. All nonkey attributes in the reaction are dependent
on the primary key.
8. Fourth Normal Form (4NF): A table is in 4NF if it is in 3NF and contains no multiple independents set
of multivalued dependencies.
9. Granularity: The level of detail represented by the values stored in a table's row. Data stored at its lowest level
of granularity is said to be Atomic Data.
10. Key Attribute: The attributes that form a primary key. See also prime attribute.
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Management
1. Atomic Attribute: An attribute that cannot be further subdivided to produce meaningful components. For
example a person's last name attribute cannot be meaningfully subdivided.
2. Aomicity: The transaction property that requires all parts of a transaction to be treated as a single indivisible
logical unit of work. All parts of a transaction must be completed or the entire transaction is aborted.
3. Boyce-Codd Normal Form (BCNF): A special type of third normal form (3NF) in which every
determinant is a candidate key. A table in BCNF must be in 3NF. See also determinant.
4. Denormalization: A process by which a table is changed from a higher-level normal form to a lower-level
normal form, usually to increase processing speed. Denormalization potentially yields data anomalies.
5. Dependency Diagram: A representation of all data dependencies (primary key, partial, or transitive) within
1/2
, a table. )
6. Determinant: Any attribute in a specific row whose value directly determines other values in that row.. See also
Boyce-Codd Normal Form (BCNF)
7. First Normal Form (1NF): Te first stage in the normalization process. It describes a relation depicted in
tabular format, with no repeating group and a primary key identified. All nonkey attributes in the reaction are dependent
on the primary key.
8. Fourth Normal Form (4NF): A table is in 4NF if it is in 3NF and contains no multiple independents set
of multivalued dependencies.
9. Granularity: The level of detail represented by the values stored in a table's row. Data stored at its lowest level
of granularity is said to be Atomic Data.
10. Key Attribute: The attributes that form a primary key. See also prime attribute.
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