BE - Database Management Systems

A trivial functional dependency is very simple: it means that an attribute depends on itself or on a set that includes it. In other words, if you know a group of columns, you obviously know any single column within that group, or the group as a whole.

Example

Imagine a table with columns roll_no, name, and age. Some trivial functional dependencies are:

• {roll_no, name} → name (since name is already part of the set {roll_no, name}).

• roll_no → roll_no (an attribute always determines itself).