NORMALIZATION

A large database defined as a single relation may result in data duplication. This
repetition of data may result in:

• Making relations very large.

• It isn't easy to maintain and update data as it would involve searching many
related records.

• Wastage and poor utilization of disk space and resources.

• The likelihood of errors and inconsistencies increases

 What is Normalization
• Normalization is the process of organizing the data in the database.

• Normalization is used to minimize the redundancy from a relation or set of

relations. It also eliminates undesirable characteristics like Insertion, Update,
and Deletion Anomalies.

• Normalization divides the larger table into smaller ones and links them using
relationships.

• The normal form is used to reduce redundancy from the database table.
 Why do we need Normalization?

 The main reason for normalizing the relations is to remove

these anomalies.
 Failure to eliminate anomalies leads to data redundancy and
can cause data integrity and other problems as the database
grows.
 Normalization consists of a series of guidelines that helps to
guide you in creating a good database structure.
 Types of Normal Forms:

NORMAL FORM DESCRPTION

A relation is in 1NF if it contains an
1NF atomic value.
A relation will be in 2NF if it is in 1NF and
2NF all non-key attributes are fully functional
dependent on the primary key.
A relation will be in 3NF if it is in 2NF
3NF and no transition dependency exists.
A stronger definition of 3NF is known
BCNF as Boyce Codd's normal form.
A relation will be in 4NF if it is in
4NF Boyce Codd's normal form and has no
multi-valued dependency.
A relation is in 5NF. If it is in 4NF and
does not contain any join
5NF dependency, joining should be
lossless.
Advantages of Normalization

 Normalization helps to minimize data redundancy.

 Greater overall database organization.

 Data consistency within the database.

 Much more flexible database design.

 Enforces the concept of relational integrity.

Disadvantages of Normalization

 You cannot start building the database before knowing what

the user needs.

 The performance degrades when normalizing the relations to

higher normal forms, i.e., 4NF, 5NF.

 It is very time-consuming and difficult to normalize relations of

a higher degree.

 Careless decomposition may lead to a bad database design,

leading to serious problems.
First Normal Form (1NF)

 A relation will be 1NF if it contains an atomic value.

 It states that an attribute of a table cannot hold

multiple values. It must hold only single-valued
attributes.

 The first normal form disallows the multi-valued

attribute, composite attribute, and their
combinations.
EMPLOYEE table:

EMP_ID EMP_NAME EMP_PHONE EMP_STATE

7272826385,
14 John UP
9064738238

20 Harry 8574783832 Bihar

7390372389,
12 Sam Punjab
8589830302
The decomposition of the EMPLOYEE table into
1NF has been shown below:
EMP_ID EMP_NAME EMP_PHONE EMP_STATE

14 John 7272826385 UP

14 John 9064738238 UP

20 Harry 8574783832 Bihar

12 Sam 7390372389 Punjab

12 Sam 8589830302 Punjab

← pr
Second Normal Form (2NF)

 In the 2NF, relational must be in 1NF.

 In the second normal form, all non-key attributes are fully functional
and dependent on the primary key

Example: Let's assume, a school can store the data of teachers and
the subjects they teach. In a school, a teacher can teach more than
one subject.
TEACHER table

TEACHER_ID SUBJECT TEACHER_AGE

25 Chemistry 30

25 Biology 30

47 English 35

83 Math 38

83 Computer 38
In the given table, non-prime attribute TEACHER_AGE is
dependent on TEACHER_ID which is a proper subset of a
candidate key.
That's why it violates the rule for 2NF.
To convert the given table into 2NF, we decompose it into two
tables:

TEACHER_DETAIL table:

TEACHER_ID TEACHER_AGE

25 30

47 35

83 38
TEACHER_SUBJECT table:
TEACHER_ID SUBJECT

25 Chemistry

25 Biology

47 English

83 Math

83 Computer
Third Normal Form (3NF)

 A relation will be in 3NF if it is in 2NF and does not

contain any transitive partial dependency.

 3NF is used to reduce the data duplication. It is also

used to achieve the data integrity.

 If there is no transitive dependency for non-prime

attributes, then the relation must be in the third
normal form.
A relation is in third normal form if it holds at least one of the
following conditions for every non-trivial function dependency X
→ Y.
X is a super key.
Y is a prime attribute,
i.e., each element of Y is part of some candidate key.
Example:
EMPLOYEE_DETAIL table:

EMP_ID EMP_NAM EMP_ZIP EMP_STAT EMP_CITY

E E

222 Harry 201010 UP Noida

333 Stephan 02228 US Boston

444 Lan 60007 US Chicago

555 Katharine 06389 UK Norwich

666 John 462007 MP Bhopal

Super key in the table above:

{EMP_ID}, {EMP_ID, EMP_NAME}, {EMP_ID, EMP_NAME, EMP_ZIP}....so on

Candidate key: {EMP_ID}

Non-prime attributes: In the given table, all
attributes except EMP_ID are non-prime.

Here, EMP_STATE & EMP_CITY dependent on EMP_ZIP and EMP_ZIP

dependent on EMP_ID. The non-prime attributes (EMP_STATE, EMP_CITY)
are transitively dependent on the super key(EMP_ID). It violates the rule
of the third normal form.

That's why we need to move the EMP_CITY and EMP_STATE

to the new <EMPLOYEE_ZIP> table, with EMP_ZIP as a
Primary key.
EMPLOYEE table:

EMP_ID EMP_NAME EMP_ZIP

222 Harry 201010

333 Stephan 02228

444 Lan 60007

555 Katharine 06389

666 John 462007

EMPLOYEE_ZIP table:
EMP_ZIP EMP_STATE EMP_CITY

201010 UP Noida

02228 US Boston

60007 US Chicago

06389 UK Norwich

462007 MP Bhopal
Boyce Codd normal form (BCNF)

 BCNF is the advanced version of 3NF. It is stricter

than 3NF.

 A table is in BCNF if every functional dependency X

→ Y, X is the super key of the table.

 For BCNF, the table should be in 3NF.

Example: Let's assume there is a company where employees work in

more than one department.
EMPLOYEE table:
EMP_ID EMP_COUN EMP_DEPT DEPT_TYP EMP_DEPT
TRY E _NO

264 India Designing D394 283

264 India Testing D394 300

364 UK Stores D283 232
Developin
364 UK D283 549
g
In the above table, Functional dependencies are as follows:
1.EMP_ID → EMP_COUNTRY
2.EMP_DEPT → {DEPT_TYPE, EMP_DEPT_NO}
Candidate key: {EMP-ID, EMP-DEPT}

The table is not in BCNF because neither EMP_DEPT nor EMP_ID alone are keys.
To convert the given table into BCNF, we decompose it into three tables:
EMP_COUNTRY table:

EMP_ID EMP_COUNTRY
264 India
264 India

EMP_DEPT table:

EMP_DEPT DEPT_TYPE EMP_DEPT_NO

Designing D394 283

Testing D394 300

Stores D283 232

Developing D283 549

EMP_DEPT_MAPPING table:

EMP_ID EMP_DEPT
D394 283
D394 300
D283 232
D283 549

Functional dependencies:
1. EMP_ID → EMP_COUNTRY
2. EMP_DEPT → {DEPT_TYPE, EMP_DEPT_NO}

Candidate keys:
For the first table: EMP_ID
For the second table: EMP_DEPT
For the third table: {EMP_ID, EMP_DEPT}

Now, this is in BCNF because the left side part of

both the functional dependencies is a key
 Fourth normal form (4NF)

 A relation will be in 4NF if it is in Boyce Codd’s

normal form and has no multi-valued dependency.

 For a dependency A → B, if for a single value of A,

multiple values of B exist, then the relation will be a
multi-valued dependency.
Example
STUDENT

STU_ID COURSE HOBBY

21 Computer Dancing

21 Math Singing

34 Chemistry Dancing

74 Biology Cricket

59 Physics Hockey

The given STUDENT table is in 3NF, but the COURSE and HOBBY are two independent
entities. Hence, there is no relationship between COURSE and HOBBY.

In the STUDENT relation, a student with STU_ID, 21 contains two

courses, Computer and Math , and two hobbies, Dancing and Singing. So there is a Multi-
valued dependency on STU_ID, which leads to unnecessary repetition of data.

So to make the above table into 4NF, we can decompose it into two tables:
STUDENT_COURSE

STU_ID COURSE
21 Computer
21 Math
34 Chemistry
74 Biology
59 Physics

STUDENT_HOBBY

STU_ID HOBBY

21 Dancing
21 Singing
34 Dancing
74 Cricket
59 Hockey
Fifth normal form (5NF)

 A relation is in 5NF if it is in 4NF and not contains any

join dependency and joining should be lossless.

 5NF is satisfied when all the tables are broken into as

many tables as possible in order to avoid redundancy.

 5NF is also known as Project-join normal form (PJ/NF).

 Example

SUBJECT LECTURER SEMESTER

Computer Anshika Semester 1
Computer John Semester 1
Math John Semester 1
Math Akash Semester 2
Chemistry Praveen Semester 1

In the above table, John takes both Computer and Math classes for Semester 1 but he doesn't
take Math classes for Semester 2. In this case, a combination of all these fields is required to
identify valid data.

Suppose we add a new Semester as Semester 3 but do not know about the subject and who
will be taking that subject so we leave Lecturer and Subject as NULL. But all three columns
together act as a primary key, so we can't leave the other two columns blank.

So to make the above table into 5NF, we can decompose it into three relations P1, P2 &
P3:
P1

SEMESTER SUBJECT
Semester 1 Computer
Semester 1 Math
Semester 1 Chemistry
Semester 2 Math

P2

SUBJECT LECTURER
Computer Anshika
Computer John
Math John
Math Akash
Chemistry Praveen
P3

SEMSTER LECTURER

Semester 1 Anshika

Semester 1 John

Semester 1 John

Semester 2 Akash

Semester 1 Praveen