GATE-2024-CS1(Forenoon)

Multi-attribute Key: This refers to a key in a relation (table) that consists of more than one attribute (column). In other words, it’s a combination of attributes that uniquely identifies each tuple (row) in the relation. For example, if you have a table of employees and you use both “Employee ID” and “Department ID” together as the key, it would be a multi-attribute key because it involves more than one attribute.

Composite Attribute: This refers to an attribute in a relation that is composed of multiple sub-attributes. It’s essentially a single attribute that represents a grouping of related information. For instance, if you have an “Address” attribute in a table that includes sub-attributes like “Street”, “City”, “State”, and “Zip Code”, then “Address” is a composite attribute because it contains multiple components.