1. A method for determining whether a set of conditional functional dependencies are consistent, wherein said conditional functional dependencies comprise one or more constraints that data in a database must satisfy including at least one pattern with data values, said method comprising: obtaining a pattern tableau comprising a tableau tuple having a plurality of attributes including one or more finite domain attributes, wherein said one or more finite domain attributes are instantiated with a value, wherein said conditional functional dependencies hold on only a subset of said tableau tuples that satisfy said pattern in said pattern tableau; applying one or more of said conditional functional dependencies in said set to said pattern tableau to instantiate an attribute of said tableau tuple with a constant; and determining that at least two conditional functional dependencies are inconsistent when an attribute is instantiated with two different constants.