Consistency problems in ER-schemas for database systems

At a conceptual level data modelling consists in providing a structured form of relevant inforrnation and to accompany structures with constraints in order to capture more semantics. Cardinality constraints are among the most popular classes of constraints in database models. While each constraint class is now well understood, little is done about their interaction since possible conflicts among them may appear. The global coherence of these constraints must be considered before creating the physical corresponding database. In order to help in database design, our aim is then to propose a tool for reasoning about a set of Cardinality constraints. We will treat the global coherence using mathematical programming technique. The analyses and the detection of invalid sub-schemas will be done using Fourier-Motzkin elimination.

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