Table Of ContentCONCEPTUAL DATA
MODELING AND
DATABASE DESIGN:
A FULLY ALGORITHMIC
APPROACH
Volume 1
The Shortest Advisable Path
TThhiiss ppaaggee iinntteennttiioonnaallllyy lleefftt bbllaannkk
CONCEPTUAL DATA
MODELING AND
DATABASE DESIGN:
A FULLY ALGORITHMIC
APPROACH
Volume 1
The Shortest Advisable Path
Christian Mancas
Mathematics and Computer Science Department,
Ovidius State University, Constanta, Romania
Computer Science Taught in English Department,
Politehnica University, Bucharest, Romania
Software R&D Department, Asentinel International and
DATASIS ProSoft, Bucharest, Romania
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To the loving memory of my parents,
to my revered Professors,
to my students, colleagues, love, children, and friends.
Our standards in databases (and not only) should always be at least equal to
the maximum of the corresponding highest academic and customer ones.
Laudamus veteres, sed nostris ultimur annis:
mos tamen est aeque dignus uterque coli.
—Publius Ovidius Naso
We cannot have a future without respecting our past.
—King Michael I of Romania
What we think, we become.
All that we are arises with our thoughts.
With our thoughts, we make the world.
—The Buddha
My prayer:
Lord, do not ever let me be satisfied with myself.
—Lucian Blaga
THINK.
—Thomas J. Watson
As we look ahead into the next century,
leaders will be those who empower others.
—Bill Gates
I believe people have to follow their dreams—I did.
—Larry Ellison
The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.
—Joseph Campbell
The Key
The whole Key
and nothing but the Key,
so help me Codd.
—David J. Emmick
TThhiiss ppaaggee iinntteennttiioonnaallllyy lleefftt bbllaannkk
CONTENTS
Dedication ....................................................................................................v
About the Author .........................................................................................ix
Foreword by Professor Bernhard Thalheim ................................................xi
Foreword by Professor Dan Suciu ..............................................................xv
Preface .....................................................................................................xvii
Acknowledgments ....................................................................................xxiii
List of Symbols ..........................................................................................xxv
1. Data, Information and Knowledge in the Computer Era ......................1
2. The Quest for Data Adequacy and Simplicity:
The Entity-Relationship Data Model (E-RDM) ....................................35
3. The Quest for Data Independence, Minimal Plausibility,
and Formalization: The Relational Data Model (RDM) ....................115
4. Relational Schemas Implementation and Reverse Engineering ........341
5. Conclusion ...............................................................................................595
Appendix: Mathematic Prerequisites for the Math Behind ......................615
Index .........................................................................................................635
TThhiiss ppaaggee iinntteennttiioonnaallllyy lleefftt bbllaannkk
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Christian Mancas, PhD, is currently an Associate Professor with both the
Mathematics and Computer Science Department of Ovidius University,
Constanta, Romania, and the Engineering Taught in Foreign Languages
Department (Computer Science and Telecommunications in English
stream) of Politehnica University, Bucharest, Romania (as an invited Pro-
fessor). Since 2012, he is also a database architect with Asentinel Interna-
tional srl, Bucharest, a subsidiary of Asentinel LLC, Memphis, Tennessee.
His specialties include university teaching, R&D, business analysis,
conceptual data and knowledge modeling and querying, client-server
and hierarchical software architecture, object-oriented and event-driven
design, structured development, complex projects and small IT company
management, Datalog, SQL, C#, XML programming, etc.
Professor Christian Mancas has published dozens of scientific papers
(in Romania, USA, Austria, and Greece), which have been indexed by
ACM Digital Library, Zentralblatt MATH, Scopus, DBLP, Arnetminer,
Researchr, TDGS, SCEAS, etc. He has also published three books in
Romanian and dozens of reviews (mostly in USA, including ACM
Reviews). He was a program committee member and session chairman
for several software conferences in the USA, Austria, and Romania, and
he is a member of several associations (including ACM, the Romanian
Mathematics Sciences Society, and the International Who’s Who of Pro-
fessionals). Since 2006, his biography is included in Marquis Who’s Who
in the World and Who’s Who in Science and Technology and Hubners’
Who’s Who in Romania.
Since 1990, he also worked for several IT startups, including his own
DATASIS Consult srl (co-owned with his good friend and faculty col-
league Ion Draghicescu) and DATASIS ProSoft srl (which had 25 pro-
grammers working for the design and development of several ERP-type
database applications for customers from France, UK, Switzerland, USA,
Israel, Greece, and Romania).
