Computing unique canonical covers for simple FDs via transitive reduction

Although there is a rich body of research on dependency theory, only few results concerning simple functional dependencies (FDs) have been published. In this paper, the following key results regarding simple FDs are shown. First, given an acyclic set F of simple FDs there exists exactly one canonical cover for F. Second, this uniquely determined canonical cover can be computed via transitive reduction. Third, it is shown how a uniquely determined canonical cover can be fixed in case of arbitrary simple FDs via transitive reduction.