Normalization

o Normalization is the process of organizing the data in the database.

o Normalization is used to minimize the redundancy from a relation or set of relations. It is also
used to eliminate undesirable characteristics like Insertion, Update, and Deletion Anomalies.
o Normalization divides the larger table into smaller and links them using relationships.
o 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 removing 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.

Data modification anomalies can be categorized into three types:

o Insertion Anomaly: Insertion Anomaly refers to when one cannot insert a new tuple into a
relationship due to lack of data.
o Deletion Anomaly: The delete anomaly refers to the situation where the deletion of data
results in the unintended loss of some other important data.
o Updatation Anomaly: The update anomaly is when an update of a single data value requires
multiple rows of data to be updated.

Advantages of Normalization
o Normalization helps to minimize data redundancy.
o Greater overall database organization.
o Data consistency within the database.
o Much more flexible database design.
o Enforces the concept of relational integrity.

Disadvantages of Normalization
o You cannot start building the database before knowing what the user needs.
o The performance degrades when normalizing the relations to higher normal forms, i.e., 4NF,
5NF.
o It is very time-consuming and difficult to normalize relations of a higher degree.
o Careless decomposition may lead to a bad database design, leading to serious problems.

First Normal Form (1NF)

o A relation will be 1NF if it contains an atomic value.
o It states that an attribute of a table cannot hold multiple values. It must hold only single-
valued attribute.
 o First normal form disallows the multi-valued attribute, composite attribute, and their
combinations.
Example: Relation EMPLOYEE is not in 1NF because of multi-valued attribute EMP_PHONE.
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 above EMPLOYEE table is an unnormalized relation as it contains multiple values corresponding
to EMP_PHONE attribute i.e. these values are non-atomic. So, relations with multi value entries are
called unnormalized relations.
To overcome this problem, we have to eliminate the non-atomic values of EMP_PHONE attribute.
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

Second Normal Form (2NF)

o In the 2NF, relational must be in 1NF.
o In the second normal form, all non-key attributes are fully functional dependent on the
primary key.
o If the proper subset of the candidate key determines a non-prime attribute, it is called partial
dependency.
Example: Consider the table below.
COURSES table

STUD_NO COURSE_NO COURSE_FEE

1 C1 1000

2 C2 1500

1 C4 2000

4 C3 1000

4 C1 1000

2 C5 2000

• There are many courses having the same course fee. Here, COURSE_FEE cannot alone
decide the value of COURSE_NO or STUD_NO.
• COURSE_FEE together with STUD_NO cannot decide the value of COURSE_NO.
• COURSE_FEE together with COURSE_NO cannot decide the value of STUD_NO.
• The candidate key for this table is {STUD_NO, COURSE_NO} because the combination of
these two columns uniquely identifies each row in the table.
• COURSE_FEE is a non-prime attribute because it is not part of the candidate
key {STUD_NO, COURSE_NO}.
• But, COURSE_NO -> COURSE_FEE, i.e., COURSE_FEE is dependent on COURSE_NO,
which is a proper subset of the candidate key.
• Therefore, Non-prime attribute COURSE_FEE is dependent on a proper subset of the
candidate key, which is a partial dependency and so this relation is not in 2NF.
To convert the above relation to 2NF, we need to split the table into two tables such as : Table 1:
STUD_NO, COURSE_NO Table 2: COURSE_NO, COURSE_FEE.

STUD_COURSE table:

STUD_NO COURSE_NO

1 C1
 2 C2

1 C4

4 C3

4 C1

2 C5

COURSES table:

COURSE_NO COURSE_FEE

C1 1000

C2 1500

C4 2000

C3 1000

C5 2000

Third Normal Form (3NF)

o A relation will be in 3NF if it is in 2NF and not contain any transitive partial dependency.
o 3NF is used to reduce the data duplication. It is also used to achieve the data integrity.
o If there is no transitive dependency for non-prime attributes, then the relation must be in third
normal form.
A relation is in third normal form if it holds atleast one of the following conditions for every non-
trivial function dependency X → Y.
1. X is a super key.
2. Y is a prime attribute, i.e., each element of Y is part of some candidate key.
Example: EMPLOYEE_DETAIL table
EMPLOYEE_DETAIL table:
 EMP_ID EMP_NAME EMP_ZIP EMP_STATE EMP_CITY

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:

1. {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) transitively dependent on super key (EMP_ID).
It violates the rule of third normal form. The reduction of 2NF relation into 3NF consists of splitting
the 2NF into appropriate relations such that every non-key attribute are functionally dependent on the
primary key not transitively or indirectly of the respective relations.
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)

o BCNF is the advance version of 3NF. It is stricter than 3NF.
o A table is in BCNF if every functional dependency X → Y, X is the super key of the table.
o For BCNF, the table should be in 3NF, and for every FD, LHS is super key.
Example: Let's assume there is a company where employees work in more than one department.
EMPLOYEE table:

EMP_ID EMP_COUNTRY EMP_DEPT DEPT_TYPE EMP_DEPT_NO

264 India Designing D394 283

264 India Testing D394 300

364 UK Stores D283 232

364 UK Developing D283 549

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

364 UK

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

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 exist, then the
relation will be a multi-valued dependency.
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