How To Identify Key Attributes in DBMS?

Answer: Identify key attributes in DBMS through primary keys, functional dependencies, uniqueness requirements, and candidate keys.

• Understand Entity Relationships: Identify the entities and their relationships within the database schema, as key attributes are crucial in defining these relationships.
• Functional Dependency Analysis: Analyze functional dependencies between attributes to identify those that uniquely determine other attributes within the entity.
• Primary Key Determination: Determine primary keys for each entity, as attributes comprising the primary key are inherently key attributes.
• Uniqueness Requirement: Consider attributes that must be unique within the entity, such as a student’s ID or a product’s serial number, as key attributes.
• Candidate Key Identification: Identify candidate keys, which are minimal sets of attributes uniquely identifying each record, as they consist of key attributes.
• Consider Domain Constraints: Take into account domain constraints and business rules to identify attributes that are essential for uniquely identifying records.
• User Requirements: Consider user requirements and application needs to determine which attributes are crucial for data retrieval, sorting, and querying.

Conclusion

By following these steps and considering various aspects of the database schema, one can effectively identify key attributes that play a vital role in defining entities and relationships within the database.