Databases Reference
In-Depth Information
department name, location, course number, course title, number of credits, schedule code, section letter, meet-
ing time, meeting place, and instructor name.
You could create a single relation containing all these attributes and then normalize that relation, or you
could apply the tips presented in Chapter 8 for determining the collection of relations. In either case, you ulti-
mately create the following collection of relations:
329
Department (DepartmentCode, DepartmentName, Location)
Course (DepartmentCode, CourseNum, CourseTitle, NumCredits)
Section (SemesterCode, ScheduleCode, DepartmentCode, CourseNum,
SectionLetter, Time, Room, FacultyNum)
Faculty (FacultyNum, LastName, FirstName)
Semester (SemesterCode, StartDate, EndDate, ExamStartDate,
ExamEndDate, WithdrawalDate)
NOTE
Actually, given the attributes in this user view, the Section relation would contain the instructor's name (LastName and FirstName).
There was no mention of instructor number. In general, as you saw earlier, it's a good idea to include determinants for attributes
whenever possible. In this example, because FacultyNum determines LastName and FirstName, you add FacultyNum to the
Section relation, at which point the Section relation is not in third normal form. Converting to third normal form produces the col-
lection of relations previously shown.
Q&A
Question:
Determine the tables and keys required for User View 6. Merge the result into the cumulative design
and draw the E-R diagram for the new cumulative design.
Answer:
Figure A-15 shows the new cumulative design.
