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Normalization Document

Data normalization is a process in which data attributes within a data model are organized to increase the cohesion of entity types. A data schema is considered to be at the level of normalization of its least normalized entity type. Higher levels of data normalization are beyond the scope of this article.

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Yelena Bytenskaya
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23 views

Normalization Document

Data normalization is a process in which data attributes within a data model are organized to increase the cohesion of entity types. A data schema is considered to be at the level of normalization of its least normalized entity type. Higher levels of data normalization are beyond the scope of this article.

Uploaded by

Yelena Bytenskaya
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Dr.

Igwe

Figure 1: An Initial Data Schema for Order (UML Notation).


Order 0NF
OrderId: integer <<PK>>
DateOrdered: Date
DateFulfilled: Date
Payment1Amount: Currency
Payment1Type: Char(4)
Payment1Description: Char(40)
Payment2Amount: Currency
Payment2Type: Char(4)
Payment2Description: Char(40)
Taxdeferal: Currency
TaxState: Currency
TaxLocal: Currency
SubtotalBeforeTax: Currency
ShipToName: char(45)
ShipToStreet: char(40)
ShipToCity: char(20)
ShipToState: char(20)
ShipToCountry: char(20)
ShipToZipCode: char(20)
ShipToPhone: char(20)
BillToName: char(45)
BillToStreet char(40)
BillToCity: char(20)
BillToState: Char(20)
BillToCountry: char(20)
BillToZipcode: char(20)
BillToPhone: char(20)
ItemName1: char (40)
ItemNumber1: integer
NumberOrdered1: integer
InitialItemPrice1: currency
TotalPriceExtended1: currency
ItemName2: char (40)
ItemNumber2: integer
NumberOrdered2: integer
InitialItemPrice2: currency
TotalPriceExtended2: currency
.
ItemName9: char (40)
ItemNumber9: integer
NumberOrdered: integer
InitialItemPrice: currency
TotalPriceExtended: currency

Data normalization is a process in which data attributes within a data model are organized to
increase the cohesion of entity types. In other words, the goal of data normalization is to reduce
and even eliminate data redundancy, an important consideration for application developers
because it is incredibly difficult to stores objects in a relational database that maintains the same
information in several places. Table 1 summarizes the three most common forms of
normalization ( First normal form (1NF), Second normal form (2NF), and Third normal
form (3NF)) describing how to put entity types into a series of increasing levels of
normalization. Higher levels of data normalization are beyond the scope of this article. With
respect to terminology, a data schema is considered to be at the level of normalization of its
least normalized entity type. For example, if all of your entity types are at second normal form
(2NF) or higher then we say that your data schema is at 2NF.

Dr. Igwe
Table 1: Data Normalization Rules.
Level

Rule

First normal form (1NF)


Second normal form (2NF)

An entity type is in 1NF when it contains no repeating groups of data.


An entity type is in 2NF when it is in 1NF and when all of its non-key attributes are fully dependent on its
primary key.
An entity type is in 3NF when it is in 2NF and when all of its attributes are directly dependent on the primary
key.

Third normal form (3NF)

1. First Normal Form (1NF)


Lets consider an example; an entity type is in first normal form (1NF) when it contains no
repeating groups of data. For example, in Figure 1 you see that there are several repeating
attributes in the data Order0NF table the ordered item information repeats nine times and the
contact information is repeated twice, once for shipping information and once for billing
information. Although this initial version of orders could work, what happens when an order has
more than nine order items? Do you create additional order records for them? What about the
vast majority of orders that only have one or two items? Do we really want to waste all that
storage space in the database for the empty fields? Likely not. Furthermore, do you want to
write the code required to process the nine copies of item information, even if it is only to
marshal it back and forth between the appropriate numbers of objects? Once again, likely not.
Figure 2 presents a reworked data schema where the order schema is put in first normal form.
The introduction of the OrderItem1NF table enables us to have as many, or as few, order items
associated with an order, increasing the flexibility of our schema while reducing storage
requirements for small orders (the majority of our business). The ContactInformation1NF table
offers a similar benefit, when an order is shipped and billed to the same person (once again the
majority of cases) we could use the same contact information record in the database to reduce
data redundancy.

OrderPayment1NF was introduced to enable customers to make several payments against an


order Order0NF could accept up to two payments, the type being something like MC and the
description MasterCard Payment, although with the new approach far more than two payments
could be supported. Multiple payments are accepted only when the total of an order is large
enough that a customer must pay via more than one approach, perhaps paying some by check
and some by credit card.

Dr. Igwe

Figure 2: An Order Data Schema in 1NF (UML Notation).

An important thing to notice is the application of primary and foreign keys in the new solution.
Order1NF has kept OrderID, the original key of Order0NF, as its primary key. To maintain
the relationship back to Order1NF, the OrderItem1NF table includes the OrderID column within
its schema, which is why it has the stereotype of FK. When a new table is introduced into a
schema, in this case OrderItem1NF, as the result of first normalization efforts it is common to
use the primary key of the original table (Order0NF) as part of the primary key of the new table.
Because OrderID is not unique for order items, you can have several order items on an order, the
column ItemSequence was added to form a composite primary key for the OrderItem1NF table.
A different approach to keys was taken with the ContactInformation1NF table. The column
ContactID, a surrogate key that has no business meaning, was made the primary key.

2. Second Normal Form (2NF)


Although the solution presented in Figure 2 is improved over that of Figure 1, it can be
normalized further. Figure 3 presents the data schema of Figure 2 in second normal form
(2NF). an entity type is in second normal form (2NF) when it is in 1NF and when every non-key
attribute, any attribute that is not part of the primary key, is fully dependent on the primary key.
This was definitely not the case with the OrderItem1NF table, therefore we need to introduce the
new table Item2NF. The problem with OrderItem1NF is that item information, such as the name
and price of an item, do not depend upon an order for that item. For example, if Hal Jordan
orders three widgets and Oliver Queen orders five widgets, the facts that the item is called a
widget and that the unit price is $19.95 is constant. This information depends on the concept
of an item, not the concept of an order for an item, and therefore should not be stored in the order
items table therefore the Item2NF table was introduced. OrderItem2NF retained the
TotalPriceExtended column, a calculated value that is the number of items ordered multiplied by

Dr. Igwe

the price of the item. The value of the SubtotalBeforeTax column within the Order2NF table is
the total of the values of the total price extended for each of its order items.
Figure 3. An Order in 2NF (UML Notation).

3. Third Normal Form (3NF)


An entity type is in third normal form (3NF) when it is in 2NF and when all of its attributes are
directly dependent on the primary key. A better way to word this rule might be that the attributes
of an entity type must depend on all portions of the primary key. In this case there is a problem
with the OrderPayment2NF table, the payment type description (such as Mastercard or
Check) depends only on the payment type, not on the combination of the order id and the
payment type. To resolve this problem the PaymentType3NF table was introduced in Figure 4,
containing a description of the payment type as well as a unique identifier for each payment type.

Dr. Igwe

Figure 4: An Order in 3NF (UML Notation).

4. Beyond 3NF
The data schema of Figure 4 can still be improved upon, at least from the point of view of data
redundancy, by removing attributes that can be calculated/derived from other ones. In this case
we could remove the SubtotalBeforeTax column within the Order3NF table and the
TotalPriceExtended column of OrderItem3NF, as you see in Figure 5.

Dr. Igwe

Figure 5. An Order Without Calculated Values (UML Notation).

5. Why Data Normalization?


The advantage of having a highly normalized data schema is that information is stored in one
place and one place only, reducing the possibility of inconsistent data. Furthermore, highlynormalized data schemas in general are closer conceptually to object-oriented schemas because
the object-oriented goals of promoting high cohesion and loose coupling between classes results
in similar solutions (at least from a data point of view). This generally makes it easier to map
your objects to your data schema.

6. Denormalization
From a purist point of view you want to normalize your data structures as much as possible, but
from a practical point of view you will find that you need to 'back out" of some of your
normalizations for performance reasons. This is called "denormalization". For example, with
the data schema of Figure 1 all the data for a single order is stored in one row (assuming orders
of up to nine order items), making it very easy to access. With the data schema of Figure 1 you
could quickly determine the total amount of an order by reading the single row from the
Order0NF table. To do so with the data schema of Figure 5 you would need to read data from a
row in the Order table, data from all the rows from the OrderItem table for that order and data
from the corresponding rows in the Item table for each order item. For this query, the data
schema of Figure 1 very likely provides better performance.

Dr. Igwe

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