Identifying candidate keys and primary keys
Date: Sun, 13 Apr 2008 02:29:27 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <fc37fe0e-476b-4a0b-8396-ab81c9a5f4a1_at_u69g2000hse.googlegroups.com>
Hello guys, this one is for one of my assignments. I want explanations and hints only.
I'm still confused with the concepts of candidate keys and primary
key. We have a patient medication form from an hospital with these:
Heading: Patient number, Full name, Bed number, Ward number, Ward
name.
Then a table with this columns: drug number, name, description,
dosage, method of admin, units per day, start date, finish date.
I have to find all the candidate keys and primary keys. I think candidate keys are the minimal superkeys.
I have found {Patient number, Ward number, Ward name}. I have excluded {Patient number, Ward number, Ward name, Full name} and {Patient number, Ward number, Ward name, Full name, Bed number} which are also superkeys but contain more attributes.
This means that I have found only one candidate key, and this is also the primary key I have found (a composite).
thanks for any help. Received on Sun Apr 13 2008 - 11:29:27 CEST