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Chapter Four
Functional Dependency and Normalization
Informal Design Guidelines for Relation Schemas
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 Informal guidelines that may be used as measures to
determine the quality of relation schema design:

» Making sure that the semantics of the

attributes is clear in the schema

» Reducing the redundant information in tuples

» Reducing the NULL values in tuples

» Disallowing the possibility of generating

spurious tuples
 These measures are not always independent of one
another.
 Functional Dependencies
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A functional dependency is a relationship between attributes in a relation
(table). It defines how one attribute (or a group of attributes) uniquely
determines another attribute.

 If A and B are attributes of a relation 𝑅, then A  B is a functional

dependency if, for every valid instance of 𝑅, the value of A uniquely
determines the value of B.
 Example: Suppose we keep track of employee email addresses, and we
only track one email address for each employee. Suppose each employee is
identified by their unique employee number. We say there is a functional
dependency of email address on employee number:
 employee number  email address
 Functional Dependencies
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EmpNum EmpEmail EmpFname EmpLname

123 [email protected] John Doe
456 [email protected] Peter Smith
555 [email protected] Alan Lee
633 [email protected] Peter Doe
787 [email protected] Alan Lee

If EmpNum is the PK then the FDs:

EmpNum  EmpEmail
EmpNum  EmpFname
EmpNum  EmpLname
must exist.
 Functional Dependencies
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EmpNum  EmpEmail
.

EmpNum  EmpFname 3 different ways

EmpNum  EmpLname you might see FDs
depicted
EmpEmail
EmpNum EmpFname

EmpLname

EmpNum EmpEmail EmpFname EmpLname

 Determinant and Dependent
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Functional Dependency

EmpNum  EmpEmail

Attribute on the LHS is known as the determinant

Determinant (the attribute that determines another attribute).
Dependent (the attribute whose value is determined).
• EmpNum is a determinant.
• EmpEmail is dependent.
 Transitive dependency
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Transitive dependency

Consider attributes A, B, and C, and where

A  B and B  C.

Functional dependencies are transitive, which means that we also have

the functional dependency AC

We say that C is transitively dependent on A through B.

 Transitive dependency
EmpNum  DeptNum 8

EmpNum EmpEmail DeptNum DeptNname

DeptNum  DeptName

EmpNum EmpEmail DeptNum DeptNname

DeptName is transitively dependent on EmpNum via DeptNum

EmpNum  DeptName
 Partial dependency
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.

A partial dependency exists when an attribute B is

functionally dependent on an attribute A, and A is a component
of a multipart candidate key.

InvNum LineNum Qty InvDate

Candidate keys: {InvNum, LineNum} InvDate is

partially dependent on {InvNum, LineNum} as
InvNum is a determinant of InvDate and InvNum is
part of a candidate key
 Normalization
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 Normalization is a mathematically rich and
scientific process that reduces data redundancy.

• Normalization is a process that “improves” a

database design by generating relations that are
of higher normal forms.
• The objective of normalization is “to create
relations where every dependency is on the key,
the whole key, and nothing but the key”.

We discuss four normal forms: 1NF, 2NF, 3NF,
and BCNF
 Normalization
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There is a sequence to normal forms:

 1NF is considered the weakest,
 2NF is stronger than 1NF,
 3NF is stronger than 2NF, and
 BCNF is considered the strongest

Also,
 any relation that is in BCNF, is in 3NF;
 any relation in 3NF is in 2NF; and
 any relation in 2NF is in 1NF.
 Levels of Normalization
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 Levels of normalization based on the amount
of redundancy in the database.
 Various levels of normalization are:
 First Normal Form (1NF)
 Second Normal Form (2NF)

Redundancy

Number of Tables
 Third Normal Form (3NF)

Complexity
 Boyce-Codd Normal Form (BCNF)
 Fourth Normal Form (4NF)
 Fifth Normal Form (5NF)
 Domain Key Normal Form (DKNF)

Most
Mostdatabases
databasesshould
shouldbe
be3NF
3NFor
orBCNF
BCNFin inorder
orderto
toavoid
avoidthe
the
database
databaseanomalies.
anomalies.
 Normalization
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 We consider a relation in BCNF to be fully normalized.

 The benefit of higher normal forms is that update semantics for the

affected data are simplified.

 This means that applications required to maintain the database are

simpler.
 A design that has a lower normal form than another design has

more redundancy. Uncontrolled redundancy can lead to data

integrity problems.
 First Normal Form
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First Normal Form

 We say a relation is in 1NF if all values stored in the relation

are single-valued and atomic.
 1NF places restrictions on the structure of relations.
 Values must be simple.
 All the key attributes are defined.
 There are no repeating groups in the table.
 All attributes are dependent on the primary key.
 First Normal Form
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The following in not in 1NF

EmpNum EmpPhone EmpDegrees

123 233-9876
333 233-1231 BA, BSc, PhD
679 233-1231 BSc, MSc

EmpDegrees is a multi-valued field:

employee 679 has two degrees: BSc and MSc
employee 333 has three degrees: BA, BSc, PhD
 First Normal Form
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. EmpNum EmpPhone EmpDegrees

123 233-9876
333 233-1231 BA, BSc, PhD
679 233-1231 BSc, MSc

To obtain 1NF relations we must, without loss of

information, replace the above with two relations - see next
slide
 First Normal Form
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EmployeeDegree
Employee
EmpNum EmpDegree
EmpNum EmpPhone
333 BA
123 233-9876
333 BSc
333 233-1231
333 PhD
679 233-1231
679 BSc
679 MSc

An outer join between Employee and EmployeeDegree will

produce the information we saw before
Examples (Unnormalized Table)
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Examples(1NF)
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 Second Normal Form
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Second Normal Form

 A relation is in 2NF if it is in 1NF, and every non-key attribute is fully

dependent on each candidate key. (That is, we don’t have any partial
functional dependency.)
• 2NF (and 3NF) both involve the concepts of key and non-key
attributes.
• A key attribute is any attribute that is part of a key; any attribute
that is not a key attribute, is a non-key attribute.
• Relations that are not in BCNF have data redundancies
• A relation in 2NF will not have any partial dependencies
 Second Normal Form
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Consider this InvLine table (in 1NF):
.

InvNum LineNum ProdNum Qty InvDate

InvNum, LineNum ProdNum, Qty
InvNum InvDate There are two
candidate keys.
Qty is the only non-
key attribute, and it is
dependent on InvNum
Since there is a determinant that is not a
candidate key, InvLine is not BCNF
InvLine is
InvLine is not 2NF since there is a partial only in 1NF
dependency of InvDate on InvNum
 Second Normal Form
InvLine 23
.

InvNum LineNum ProdNum Qty InvDate

The above relation has redundancies: the invoice date is
repeated on each invoice line.
We can improve the database by decomposing the relation
into two relations:
InvNum LineNum ProdNum Qty

InvNum InvDate

Question: What is the highest normal form for these

relations? 2NF? 3NF? BCNF?
 24

Is the following relation in 2NF?

inv_no line_no prod_no prod_desc qty

 25

2NF, but not in 3NF, nor in BCNF:

EmployeeDept
ename ssn bdate address dnumber dname

since dnumber is not a candidate key and we have:

dnumber  dname.
 Third Normal Form
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Third Normal Form

• A relation is in 3NF if the relation is in 2NF and all

determinants of non-key attributes are candidate keys
 That is, for any functional dependency: X  Y, where Y is a
non-key attribute (or a set of non-key attributes), X is a
candidate key.
• This definition of 3NF differs from BCNF only in the
specification of non-key attributes - 3NF is weaker than
BCNF. (BCNF requires all determinants to be candidate
keys.)
• A relation in 3NF will not have any transitive dependencies
Consider this Employee relation
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.

Candidate keys
are? …
EmpNum EmpName DeptNum DeptName

EmpName, DeptNum, and DeptName are non-key attributes.

DeptNum determines DeptName, a non-key attribute, and
DeptNum is not a candidate key.

Is the relation in 3NF? … no Is the relation in BCNF? … no

Is the relation in 2NF? … yes
 Third Normal Form
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.

EmpNum EmpName DeptNum DeptName

We correct the situation by decomposing the original relation

into two 3NF relations. Note the decomposition is lossless.

EmpNum EmpName DeptNum DeptNum DeptName

Verify these two relations are in 3NF.

 30
.

In 3NF, but not in BCNF:

Instructor teaches one course
only.
student_no course_no instr_no
Student takes a course and has
one instructor.

{student_no, course_no}  instr_no

instr_no  course_no

since we have instr_no  course-no, but instr_no is not a

Candidate key.
 32

student_no course_no instr_no

BC
NF

student_no instr_no

course_no instr_no

{student_no, instr_no}  student_no

{student_no, instr_no}  instr_no
instr_no  course_no
 Boyce-Codd Normal Form
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Boyce-Codd Normal Form

 BCNF is defined very simply:

 A relation is in BCNF if it is in 3NF and
 If every determinant is a candidate key.
 If our database will be used for OLTP (on line
transaction processing), then BCNF is our target.
Usually, we meet this objective. However, we
might denormalize (3NF, 2NF, or 1NF) for
performance reasons.
Examples: BCNF (UNF)
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In the above table Functional dependencies are as

follows:EMP_ID → EMP_COUNTRY
EMP_DEPT → {DEPT_TYPE, EMP_DEPT_NO}

Candidate key: {EMP-ID, EMP-DEPT}

 BCNF
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The table is not in BCNF because neither EMP_DEPT nor EMP_ID alone are keys.
 BCNF
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Functional dependencies:

EMP_ID → EMP_COUNTRY

EMP_DEPT → {DEPT_TYPE, EMP_DEPT_NO}

Candidate keys:

For the first table: EMP_ID

For the second table: EMP_DEPT

So it is in BCNF because left side part of both the functional dependencies is a key
Summary
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Any Question?