A direct relationship between data elements in a relational database. Functional dependency (FD) states that one data element is dependent on another. For example, social security number (SSN ...

A classic example is having a course offering entity with two candidate keys: ... Course Number is one candidate key, and Session Number, Course Name is the other. If there is a functional dependency ...

Contrast with functional dependency. The Goal Is Eliminate Transitive Dependencies When designing a database, "third normal form" is achieved by eliminating transitive dependencies in each table.