Integrity Rules for Multiargument Relationships in Possibilistic Databases

Abstract

The paper contains an analysis of multiargument relationships in possibilistic databases. A multiargument relationship may be formally presented using the relational notation R(X1, X2,...,Xn), where R is the name of the relationship and attributes Xi denote keys of entity sets which participate in it. The dependencies between all n attributes describe the integrity constraints and must not be infringed. They constitute a restriction for relationships of fewer attributes. In the paper it is considered a possible coexistence of associations between k < n attributes of the n-ary relationship. The analysis is carried out using the theory of fuzzy functional dependencies. The notion of functional dependency has been appropriately extended according to the representation of data.