NORMALIZATION & TYPES OF
NORMALIZATION
1) DEFINE
NORMALIZATION
Normalization can be defined as :-
▪ A process of organizing the data in database to avoid data redundancy,
insertion anomaly, update anomaly & deletion anomaly.
• A process of organizing data into tables in such a way that the results
of using the database are always unambiguous and as intended. Such
normalization is intrinsic to relational database theory. It may have the
effect of duplicating data within the database and often results in the
creation of additional tables.
Types of
normalization
▪ First Normal Form (1NF)
▪ Second Normal Form (2NF)
▪ Third Normal Form (3NF)
▪ Boyce-Codd Normal Form (BCNF)
▪ Fourth Normal Form (4NF)
▪ Fifth Normal Form (5NF)
First Normal Form (1NF)
First normal form enforces these criteria:
Eliminate repeating groups in individual tables.
Create a separate table for each set of related
data.
Identify each set of related data with a primary
key
First Normal Form
Table_Product This table is not in first
normal form because the
Product Id Colour Price “Colour” column contains
multiple Values.
1 Black, red Rs.210
2 Green Rs.150
3 Red Rs. 110
4 Green, blue Rs.260
5 Black Rs.100
After decomposing it into first
normal form it looks like:
Product_id Price Product_id Colour
1 Rs.210 1 Black
1 Red
2 Rs.150
2 Green
3 Rs. 110 3 Red
4 Rs.260 4 Green
4 Blue
5 Rs.100
5 Black
Second Normal Form (2NF)
A table is said to be in 2NF if both the following conditions hold:
Table is in 1NF (First normal form)
No non-prime attribute is dependent on the proper subset of any
candidate key of table.
An attribute that is not part of any candidate key is known as non-prime
attribute.
SECOND NORMAL FORM
Table purchase detail This table has a composite
primary key i.e. customer id,
Customer_id Store_id Location store id. The non key attribute is
1 1 Patna location. In this case location
depends on store id, which is
1 3 Noida part of the primary key.
2 1 Patna
3 2 Delhi
4 3 Noida
After decomposing it into second
normal form it looks like:
Table Purchase Table Store
Customer_id Store_id Store_id Location
1 1 1 Patna
1 3 2 Delhi
2 1 3 Noida
3 2
4 3
Third Normal Form (3NF)
A table design is said to be in 3NF if both the following conditions hold:
Table must be in 2NF
Transitive functional dependency of non-prime attribute on any super key
should be removed.
An attribute that is not part of any candidate key is known as non-prime attribute.
In other words 3NF can be explained like this: A table is in 3NF if it is in 2NF and for
each functional dependency X-> Y at least one of the following conditions hold:
X is a super key of table
Y is a prime attribute of table
An attribute that is a part of one of the candidate keys is known as prime attribute.
THIRD NORMAL
FORM
Table Student Details In the table, book_id determines
genre_id and genre_id determines
Book_id Genre_id Genre Price genre type. Therefore book_idd
type determines genre type via
1 1 Fiction 100 genre_id and we have transitive
functional dependency.
2 2 Sports 110
3 1 Fiction 120
4 3 Travel 130
5 2 sports 140
After decomposing it into third
normal form it looks like:
TABLE BOOK TABLE GENRE
Book_id Genre_id Price Genre_id Genre type
1 1 100 1 Fiction
2 2 110 2 Sports
3 1 120 3 Travel
4 3 130
5 2 140
Boyce-Codd Normal Form (BCNF)
It is an advance version of 3NF that’s why it is also referred as 3.5NF.
BCNF is stricter than 3NF. A table complies with BCNF if it is in 3NF and for
every functional dependency X->Y, X should be the super key of the table.
Boyce-Codd Normal Form
KEY: {Student, Course}
Functional dependency
Student Course Teacher {student, course} -> Teacher
Aman DBMS AYUSH Teacher-> Course
Aditya DBMS RAJ Problem: teacher is not
superkey but determines course.
Abhinav E-COMM RAHUL
Aman E-COMM RAHUL
abhinav DBMS RAJ
After decomposing it into Boyce-
Codd normal form it looks like:
Student Course Course Teacher
Aman DBMS DBMS AYUSH
Aditya DBMS DBMS RAJ
Abhinav E-COMM E-COMM RAHUL
Aman E-COMM
Abhinav DBMS
Fourth Normal Form (4NF)
Fourth normal form (4NF) is a level of database normalization where
there are no non-trivial multivalued dependencies other than a candidate
key.
It builds on the first three normal forms (1NF, 2NF and 3NF) and the Boyce-
Codd Normal Form (BCNF). It states that, in addition to a database
meeting the requirements of BCNF, it must not contain more than one
multivalued dependency.
FOURTH NORMAL
FORM
Student Major Hobby Key: {students, major,
hobby}
Aman Management Football
MVD: ->-> Major, hobby
Aman Management Cricket
Raj Management Football
Raj Medical Football
Ram Management Cricket
Aditya Btech Football
Abhinav Btech Cricket
After decomposing it into fourth
normal form it looks like:
Student Major Student Hobby
Aman Management Aman Football
Raj Management Aman Cricket
Raj Medical Raj Football
Ram Management Ram Cricket
Aditya Btech Aditya Football
Abhinav Btech Abhinav Cricket
Fifth Normal Form (5NF)
A database is said to be in 5NF, if and only if,
It's in 4NF.
If we can decompose table further to eliminate redundancy and anomaly,
and when we re-join the decomposed tables by means of candidate keys, we
should not be losing the original data or any new record set should not arise. In
simple words, joining two or more decomposed table should not lose records
nor create new records.
FIFTH NORMAL
FORM
Seller Company Product Key: {seller, company, product}
MVD: Seller ->-> Company,
Aman Coca cola Thumps Up
company product Product is related to
Aditya Unilever Ponds company.
Aditya Unilever Axe
Aditya Uniliver Lakme
Abhinav P&G Vicks
Abhinav Pepsico Pepsi
After decomposing it into fifth
normal form it looks like:
Seller Product Seller Company
Aman Thumps Up Aman Coca cola
Aditya Ponds company
Aditya Axe Aditya Unilever
Aditya Lakme Abhinav P&G
Abhinav Vicks Abhinav Pepsico
Abhinav Pepsi
Continued in next slide…
Company Product
Coca cola company Thumps Up
Unilever Ponds
Unilever Axe
Unilever Lakme
Pepsico Pepsi
P&G Vicks
Normalization in DBMS: 1NF, 2NF, 3NF and BCNF in Database
Normalization is a process of organizing the data in database to avoid data redundancy, insertion anomaly, update anomaly & deletion anomaly.
Let’s discuss about anomalies first then we will discuss normal forms with examples.
Anomalies in DBMS
There are three types of anomalies that occur when the database is not normalized. These are – Insertion, update and deletion anomaly. Let’s take an
example to understand this.
Example: Suppose a manufacturing company stores the employee details in a table named employee that has four attributes: emp_id for storing
employee’s id, emp_name for storing employee’s name, emp_address for storing employee’s address and emp_dept for storing the department details
in which the employee works. At some point of time the table looks like this:
emp_id emp_name emp_address emp_dept
101 Rick Delhi D001
101 Rick Delhi D002
123 Maggie Agra D890
166 Glenn Chennai D900
166 Glenn Chennai D004
The above table is not normalized. We will see the problems that we face when a table is not normalized.
Update anomaly: In the above table we have two rows for employee Rick as he belongs to two departments of the company. If we want to update
the address of Rick then we have to update the same in two rows or the data will become inconsistent. If somehow, the correct address gets updated
in one department but not in other then as per the database, Rick would be having two different addresses, which is not correct and would lead to
inconsistent data.
Insert anomaly: Suppose a new employee joins the company, who is under training and currently not assigned to any department then we would not
be able to insert the data into the table if emp_dept field doesn’t allow nulls.
Delete anomaly: Suppose, if at a point of time the company closes the department D890 then deleting the rows that are having emp_dept as D890
would also delete the information of employee Maggie since she is assigned only to this department.
To overcome these anomalies we need to normalize the data. In the next section we will discuss about normalization.
Normalization
Here are the most commonly used normal forms:
First normal form(1NF)
Second normal form(2NF)
Third normal form(3NF)
Boyce & Codd normal form (BCNF)
First normal form (1NF)
As per the rule of first normal form, an attribute (column) of a table cannot hold multiple values. It should hold only atomic values.
Example: Suppose a company wants to store the names and contact details of its employees. It creates a table that looks like this:
emp_id emp_name emp_address emp_mobile
101 Herschel New Delhi 8912312390
8812121212
102 Jon Kanpur
9900012222
103 Ron Chennai 7778881212
9990000123
104 Lester Bangalore 8123450987
Two employees (Jon & Lester) are having two mobile numbers so the company stored them in the same field as you can see in the table above.
This table is not in 1NF as the rule says “each attribute of a table must have atomic (single) values”, the emp_mobile values for employees Jon &
Lester violates that rule.
To make the table complies with 1NF we should have the data like this:
emp_id emp_name emp_address emp_mobile
101 Herschel New Delhi 8912312390
102 Jon Kanpur 8812121212
102 Jon Kanpur 9900012222
103 Ron Chennai 7778881212
104 Lester Bangalore 9990000123
104 Lester Bangalore 8123450987
Second normal form (2NF)
A table is said to be in 2NF if both the following conditions hold:
Table is in 1NF (First normal form)
No non-prime attribute is dependent on the proper subset of any candidate key of table.
An attribute that is not part of any candidate key is known as non-prime attribute.
Example: Suppose a school wants to store the data of teachers and the subjects they teach. They create a table that looks like this: Since a teacher can
teach more than one subjects, the table can have multiple rows for a same teacher.
teacher_id Subject teacher_age
111 Maths 38
111 Physics 38
222 Biology 38
333 Physics 40
333 Chemistry 40
Candidate Keys: {teacher_id, subject}
Non prime attribute: teacher_age
The table is in 1 NF because each attribute has atomic values. However, it is not in 2NF because non prime attribute teacher_age is dependent on
teacher_id alone which is a proper subset of candidate key. This violates the rule for 2NF as the rule says “no non-prime attribute is dependent on the
proper subset of any candidate key of the table”.
To make the table complies with 2NF we can break it in two tables like this:
teacher_details table:
teacher_id teacher_age
111 38
222 38
333 40
teacher_subject table:
teacher_id subject
111 Maths
111 Physics
222 Biology
333 Physics
333 Chemistry
Now the tables comply with Second normal form (2NF).
Third Normal form (3NF)
A table design is said to be in 3NF if both the following conditions hold:
Table must be in 2NF
Transitive functional dependency of non-prime attribute on any super key should be removed.
An attribute that is not part of any candidate key is known as non-prime attribute.
In other words 3NF can be explained like this: A table is in 3NF if it is in 2NF and for each functional dependency X-> Y at least one of the
following conditions hold:
X is a super key of table
Y is a prime attribute of table
An attribute that is a part of one of the candidate keys is known as prime attribute.
Example: Suppose a company wants to store the complete address of each employee, they create a table named employee_details that looks like this:
emp_id emp_name emp_zip emp_state emp_city emp_district
1001 John 282005 UP Agra Dayal Bagh
1002 Ajeet 222008 TN Chennai M-City
1006 Lora 282007 TN Chennai Urrapakkam
1101 Lilly 292008 UK Pauri Bhagwan
1201 Steve 222999 MP Gwalior Ratan
Super keys: {emp_id}, {emp_id, emp_name}, {emp_id, emp_name, emp_zip}…so on
Candidate Keys: {emp_id}
Non-prime attributes: all attributes except emp_id are non-prime as they are not part of any candidate keys.
Here, emp_state, emp_city & emp_district dependent on emp_zip. And, emp_zip is dependent on emp_id that makes non-prime attributes
(emp_state, emp_city & emp_district) transitively dependent on super key (emp_id). This violates the rule of 3NF.
To make this table complies with 3NF we have to break the table into two tables to remove the transitive dependency:
employee table:
emp_id emp_name emp_zip
1001 John 282005
1002 Ajeet 222008
1006 Lora 282007
1101 Lilly 292008
1201 Steve 222999
employee_zip table:
emp_zip emp_state emp_city emp_district
282005 UP Agra Dayal Bagh
222008 TN Chennai M-City
282007 TN Chennai Urrapakkam
292008 UK Pauri Bhagwan
222999 MP Gwalior Ratan
Boyce Codd normal form (BCNF)
It is an advance version of 3NF that’s why it is also referred as 3.5NF. BCNF is stricter than 3NF. A table complies with BCNF if it is in 3NF and for
every functional dependency X->Y, X should be the super key of the table.
Example: Suppose there is a company wherein employees work in more than one department. They store the data like this:
emp_id emp_nationality emp_dept dept_type dept_no_of_emp
1001 Austrian Production and planning D001 200
1001 Austrian stores D001 250
1002 American design and technical support D134 100
1002 American Purchasing department D134 600
Functional dependencies in the table above:
emp_id -> emp_nationality
emp_dept -> {dept_type, dept_no_of_emp}
Candidate key: {emp_id, emp_dept}
The table is not in BCNF as neither emp_id nor emp_dept alone are keys.
To make the table comply with BCNF we can break the table in three tables like this:
emp_nationality table:
emp_id emp_nationality
1001 Austrian
1002 American
emp_dept table:
emp_dept dept_type dept_no_of_emp
Production and planning D001 200
stores D001 250
design and technical support D134 100
Purchasing department D134 600
emp_dept_mapping table:
emp_id emp_dept
1001 Production and planning
1001 stores
1002 design and technical support
1002 Purchasing department
Functional dependencies:
emp_id -> emp_nationality
emp_dept -> {dept_type, dept_no_of_emp}
Candidate keys:
For first table: emp_id
For second table: emp_dept
For third table: {emp_id, emp_dept}
This is now in BCNF as in both the functional dependencies left side part is a key.
Fourth normal form (4NF)
o A relation will be in 4NF if it is in Boyce Codd normal form and has no multi-valued dependency.
o For a dependency A → B, if for a single value of A, multiple values of B exists, 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 entity. 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)
o A relation is in 5NF if it is in 4NF and not contains any join dependency and joining should be lossless.
o 5NF is satisfied when all the tables are broken into as many tables as possible in order to avoid redundancy.
o 5NF is also known as Project-join normal form (PJ/NF).
Example
In the above table, John takes both Computer and Math class for Semester 1 but he doesn't take Math class for Semester 2. In this case,
combination of all these fields required to identify a valid data.
SUBJECT LECTURER SEMESTER
Computer Anshika Semester 1
Computer John Semester 1
Math John Semester 1
Math Akash Semester 2
Chemistry Praveen Semester 1
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 acts as a primary key, so we can't leave other two columns blank.
So to make the above table into 5NF, we can decompose it into three relations P1, P2 & P3:
P1
13.9M
230
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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