A major bank operates ATM machines all over the world. Use the E-R diagram below to answer the following questions.

What is the key of Transaction?

Question

A major bank operates ATM machines all over the world. Use the E-R diagram below to answer the following questions.

What is the key of Transaction?

BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

The problem asks: 'What is the key of Transaction?' We should first restate what the question is asking and what information is provided.

Option set: The provided data shows an answer list with one item: '{ATM ID, Time, Amount}'. However, there are no explicit answer options presented in the question block besides this, so we must work with what is given and reason about the concept of a key in a database ER model.

Idea about a key: In an entity-relationship model, a primary (or candidate) key is one or more attributes that uniquely identify a record in that entity. For a Transaction in an ATM system, we expect attributes that collectively guarantee uniqueness for each transaction event.

Why the combination '{ATM ID, Time, Amount}' could be considered a key:
- ATM ID identifies the machine where the transaction occurred, anchoring the source of the event.
- Time (timestamp) pinpoints when the transaction happened, helping distinguish events that occur at different moments.
- Amount adds an additional differentiator, especially in high-volume scenarios where two transactions could occur at nearly the same moment at the same ATM; the amount can help prevent duplicate keys if Time resolution is coarse.
- Taken together, ATM ID + Time + Amount form a composite key that reduces the chance of two distinct transactions sharing identical values for all three attributes, thus aiding unique identification.

Why the combination might be questionable or dependent on assumptions:
- If Time is stored with sufficient precision (e.g., milliseconds), Time alone may be enough to distinguish transactions on a single ATM; in that case, Amount would be redundant for uniqueness.
- If there is a separate Transaction ID surrogate (an internal unique identifier), that surrogate would usually serve as the primary key, making the composite of ATM ID/Time/Amount unnecessary.
- The diagram shown in the prompt (Car/ VIN/ Make/ Model/ Features) does not display a Transaction entity or its attributes, so we must rely on general database design principles rather than the specific diagram to judge keys.

Why the other potential interpretations could be incorrect (hypothetical alternatives since options are not provided):
- If someone suggested 'ATM ID' alone as the key, this would be insufficient because multiple transactions can occur on the same ATM, invalidating uniqueness.
- If someone suggested 'Time' alone as the key, this would fail in most real systems because multiple transactions can share the same timestamp, especially if time granularity is coarse.
- If someone suggested '{Time, Amount}' without ATM ID, it could still risk collisions across different ATMs in different locations where the same time and amount occur; including ATM ID helps ensure global uniqueness.

Overall, given the provided answer candidate '{ATM ID, Time, Amount}', the logic is that a composite key incorporating the machine identifier, a precise timestamp, and the monetary amount can collectively ensure unique identification of a transaction in environments with potential concurrent events across many ATMs. The absence of a visible Transaction entity in the diagram means these conclusions are based on standard ER modeling principles rather than direct diagram cues.

HADM3740/HADM6740 Entity-Relationship Model Quiz

A major bank operates ATM machines all over the world. Use the E-R diagram below to answer the following questions. What is the key of Transaction?

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