Finite Relation

last modified: January 17, 2014

A Relation on domains D1 x D2 x D3 x ... x Dn:

is potentially infinite so long as at least one domain is infinite 
is potentially uncountable so long as at least one domain is uncountable

(see RelationalModel).

A FiniteRelation is a Relation possessing the quality of being finite. FiniteRelations have nice qualities for use in DataBases. In particular, it is possible to compute a list of all things in a finite relation, and it is possible to represent the relation as a simple list (aka. a 'table'). RelationalAlgebra operations over FiniteRelations, excepting Inverse, are closed.

All FiniteRelations are also CountableRelation.


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