Armstrong’s Axioms

Infer functional dependencies from other functional dependencies

Note

Sound: Anything derived from F is in F+
Complete: Anything in F+ can be derived

  1. Reflexivity: If YX holds then XY holds
  2. Augmentation: If XY holds then XZYZ holds
  3. Transitivity: If XY and YZ holds then XZ holds

Additional rules

  1. Union: If XY and XZ holds then XYZ holds
  2. Decomposition: If XYZ holds then XY holds