What is an atomic attribute in DBMS

What is an atomic attribute in DBMS? / Define the term atomic attribute / An attribute that cannot be further divided into sub-components

Atomic Attribute

An attribute that cannot be divided further into meaningful subcomponents/sub-attributes is an Atomic attribute.

Following attributes are some of the examples of atomic attributes;

• First_name, last_name of a person, names of things etc. – a person’s name may be divided into first name, last name and middle name etc. But a person’s first name cannot be divided further to give meaningful information. Hence, a first name is an atomic attribute,

• Gender – gender cannot be further divided,

• Year_of_Pass – it is a year. It cannot be divided,

• Door_no – Door number. [An address may not be an atomic attribute, since it has several sub-components like door_no, street, city etc.],

and many more.

In simpler terms, an attribute that is Simple attribute is almost an atomic attribute.

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