On the recognition and design of acyclic databases
Aurora D’Atri, Marina Moscarini · 1984
The acyclicity degree of a relational database scheme is an interesting topic due to several desirable properties of the corresponding database [5,16]. In this paper a simple and homogeneous way to characterize the acyclicity degree of a database scheme is given. The method is based on the existence in all acyclic database schemes of a nonempty set of relation schemes that satisfy a "pruning predicate", which is a property similar to the property satisfied by the leaves in an ordinary tree. This fact implies that such relation schemes may be eliminated using a recursive pruning algorithm in order to determine the acyclicity degree. Furthermore, if we use an incremental step by step design methodology, enriching the scheme one relation at a time, the pruning predicate suggests a set of properties that have to be verified by the new relation scheme in order to preserve the acyclicity degree of the database scheme.