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Propagation Constraint
In database systems, a propagation constraint "details what should happen to a related table when we update a row or rows of a target table" (Paul Beynon-Davies, 2004, p.108). Tables are linked using primary key to foreign key relationships. It is possible for users to update one table in a relationship in such a way that the relationship is no longer consistent and this is known as breaking referential integrity. An example of breaking referential integrity: if a table of employees includes a department number for 'Housewares' which is a foreign key to a table of departments and a user deletes that department from the department table then Housewares employees records would refer to a non-existent department number. Propagation constraints are methods used by relational database management systems (RDBMS) to solve this problem by ensuring that relationships between tables are preserved without error. In his database textbook, Beynon-Davies explains the three ways that RDBMS handle ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Primary Key
In the relational model of databases, a primary key is a designated attribute (column) that can reliably identify and distinguish between each individual record in a table. The database creator can choose an existing unique attribute or combination of attributes from the table (a natural key) to act as its primary key, or create a new attribute containing a unique ID that exists solely for this purpose (a surrogate key). Examples of natural keys that could be suitable primary keys include data that is already by definition unique to all items in the table such as a national identification number attribute for person records, or the combination of a very precise timestamp attribute with a very precise location attribute for event records. More formally, a primary key is a specific choice of a minimal set of attributes that uniquely specify a tuple ( row) in a relation (table). A primary key is a choice of a candidate key (a minimal superkey); any other candidate key is an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Foreign Key
A foreign key is a set of attributes in a table that refers to the primary key of another table, linking these two tables. In the context of relational databases, a foreign key is subject to an inclusion dependency constraint that the tuples consisting of the foreign key attributes in one relation, R, must also exist in some other (not necessarily distinct) relation, S; furthermore that those attributes must also be a candidate key in S. In other words, a foreign key is a set of attributes that a candidate key. For example, a table called TEAM may have an attribute, MEMBER_NAME, which is a foreign key referencing a candidate key, PERSON_NAME, in the PERSON table. Since MEMBER_NAME is a foreign key, any value existing as the name of a member in TEAM must also exist as a person's name in the PERSON table; in other words, every member of a TEAM is also a PERSON. Summary The table containing the foreign key is called the child table, and the table containing the candidate ke ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Referential Integrity
Referential integrity is a property of data stating that all its references are valid. In the context of relational databases, it requires that if a value of one attribute (column) of a relation (table) references a value of another attribute (either in the same or a different relation), then the referenced value must exist. For referential integrity to hold in a relational database, any column in a base table that is declared a foreign key can only contain either null values or values from a parent table's primary key or a candidate key. In other words, when a foreign key value is used it must reference a valid, existing primary key in the parent table. For instance, deleting a record that contains a value referred to by a foreign key in another table would break referential integrity. Some relational database management systems (RDBMS) can enforce referential integrity, normally either by deleting the foreign key rows as well to maintain integrity, or by returning an error and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Relational Database Management System
A relational database (RDB) is a database based on the relational model of data, as proposed by E. F. Codd in 1970. A Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) is a type of database management system that stores data in a structured format using rows and columns. Many relational database systems are equipped with the option of using SQL (Structured Query Language) for querying and updating the database. History The concept of relational database was defined by E. F. Codd at IBM in 1970. Codd introduced the term ''relational'' in his research paper "A Relational Model of Data for Large Shared Data Banks". In this paper and later papers, he defined what he meant by ''relation''. One well-known definition of what constitutes a relational database system is composed of Codd's 12 rules. However, no commercial implementations of the relational model conform to all of Codd's rules, so the term has gradually come to describe a broader class of database systems, which at a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tuple
In mathematics, a tuple is a finite sequence or ''ordered list'' of numbers or, more generally, mathematical objects, which are called the ''elements'' of the tuple. An -tuple is a tuple of elements, where is a non-negative integer. There is only one 0-tuple, called the ''empty tuple''. A 1-tuple and a 2-tuple are commonly called a singleton and an ordered pair, respectively. The term ''"infinite tuple"'' is occasionally used for ''"infinite sequences"''. Tuples are usually written by listing the elements within parentheses "" and separated by commas; for example, denotes a 5-tuple. Other types of brackets are sometimes used, although they may have a different meaning. An -tuple can be formally defined as the image of a function that has the set of the first natural numbers as its domain. Tuples may be also defined from ordered pairs by a recurrence starting from an ordered pair; indeed, an -tuple can be identified with the ordered pair of its first elements and its t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Null (SQL)
In SQL, null or NULL is a special marker used to indicate that a data value does not exist in the database. Introduced by the creator of the Relational model, relational database model, E. F. Codd, SQL null serves to fulfill the requirement that all ''true relational database management systems (Relational database#RDBMS, RDBMS)'' support a representation of "missing information and inapplicable information". Codd also introduced the use of the lowercase Greek omega (ω) symbol to represent null in database theory. In SQL, NULL is a List of SQL reserved words, reserved word used to identify this marker. A null should not be confused with a value of 0. A null indicates a lack of a value, which is not the same as a zero value. For example, consider the question "How many books does Adam own?" The answer may be "zero" (we ''know'' that he owns ''none'') or "null" (we ''do not know'' how many he owns). In a database table, the Column (database), column reporting this answer would ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Palgrave Macmillan
Palgrave Macmillan is a British academic and trade publishing company headquartered in the London Borough of Camden. Its programme includes textbooks, journals, monographs, professional and reference works in print and online. It maintains offices in London, New York City, New York, Shanghai, Melbourne, Sydney, Hong Kong, Delhi and Johannesburg. Palgrave Macmillan was created in 2000 when St. Martin's Press in the US united with Macmillan Publishers in the UK to combine their worldwide academic publishing operations. The company was known simply as Palgrave until 2002, but has since been known as Palgrave Macmillan. It is a subsidiary of Springer Nature. Until 2015, it was part of the Macmillan Publishers, Macmillan Group and therefore wholly owned by the German publishing company Holtzbrinck Publishing Group (which still owns a controlling interest in Springer Nature). As part of Macmillan, it was headquartered at the Macmillan campus in Kings Cross, London with other Macmilla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
