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Certainly! Let’s explore some informal design guidelines for relation schemas. These
guidelines help ensure the quality and clarity of your database schema design. While they are
not formal rules, following them can lead to better-designed relations:

1. Imparting Clear Semantics to Attributes in Relations:

When creating a relation schema, it’s essential to assign clear meanings to the
attributes.
Each attribute within a relation should have a real-world interpretation associated
with it.
The semantics of a relation stem from how we interpret attribute values in a tuple.
A well-designed relation schema is one where the meaning of its attributes is
straightforward and easy to explain.
For example, consider an EMPLOYEE relation with attributes like name, Social
Security number, birth date, address, and department number. The semantics of
these attributes should be evident: each tuple represents an employee with specific
information.

2. Reducing Redundant Information in Tuples:

Avoid storing redundant data in tuples. Redundancy can lead to inconsistencies and
data anomalies.
For instance, if an employee’s address is stored redundantly in multiple tuples,
updating it becomes error-prone.
Proper normalization techniques help minimize redundancy and maintain data
integrity.

3. Reducing NULL Values in Tuples:

NULL values indicate missing or unknown information.

While NULLs are sometimes necessary, excessive use can complicate queries and lead
to unexpected results.
Design your schema to minimize NULLs by ensuring that essential attributes have
meaningful values.

4. Disallowing the Possibility of Generating Spurious Tuples:

Spurious tuples are those that don’t belong to the original relation but appear due to
join operations.
To prevent spurious tuples, carefully design foreign key relationships and ensure
referential integrity.
For example, if an employee’s department number is a foreign key, it should always
refer to an existing department.

Remember that these informal guidelines complement the formal theory of relational database
design. By adhering to them, you can create well-structured and meaningful relation schemas
that facilitate efficient data management.