Normal Forms &

Normalization
Vu Tuyet Trinh
trinhvt@it-hut.edu.vn
Department of Information Systems, School of Information Technolog
Hanoi University of Technology

Database Design

Extended Entity Relationship

Top Down
Conceptual/Abstract View

Functional Dependencies

1.
2.
3.

Bottom Up
Synthesise relations
List all attributes
Consider the relationships between them
Decompose attributes into tables in order to eliminate the
redundancy.

Using functional dependencies

toSynthesise relations
studno
studno
studno
familyname
studno
givenname
studno
hons
studno
tutor
studno
slot
studno
year
studno, courseno
studno, courseno
courseno
courseno
courseno
lecturer
lecturer
lecturer
roomno
roomno
roomno

STUDENT
(studno,givenname,familyname,hons,tutor,slot,year)

labmark
exammark
courseno
subject
equip

lecturer
roomno
appraiser
lecturer
roomno
appraiser

ENROL(studno,courseno,labmark,exammark)

COURSE(courseno,subject,equip)

STAFF(lecturer,roomno,appraiser)
hons
hons

year
year
yeartutor
yeartutor

stud
no
s1
s1
s1
s2
s2
s3
s4
s5
s6
null
null
s7

year
yeartutor
year
yeartutor

name

tutor

jones
jones
jones
brown
brown
smith
blogg
jones
peters
null
null
patel

bush
bush
wibby
kahn
kahn
goble
goble
zobel
kahn
capon
null
null

YEAR(year,yeartutor)

roomn
o
2.26
2.26
2.26
IT206
IT206
2.82
2.82
2.34
A17
A14
null
null

SCHOOL(hons,faculty)

course no

labmark

subject

cs250
cs260
cs270
cs250
cs270
cs270
cs280
cs250
cs250
null
cs290
null

65
80
47
67
65
49
50
0
2
null
null
null

prog
graphics
elecs
prog
elecs
comms
design
prog
prog
null
specs
null

F
studno name, tutor
tutor roomno
roomno tutor
courseno subject
studno, courseno labmark

faculty
hons

F+
studno, courseno name partial
studno roomno

transitive

Process of Normalization

Represent all user views (e.g forms, reports etc) as a

collection of relations

Normalize these relations

Combine relations that have exactly the same primary

key/s.

First Normal Form (1NF)

Definition

there are no repeating groups.

a unique key has been identified for each relation

all attributes are functionally dependent on all or part of the key.

Example
STUDENT_DETAILS
(studno, name, tutor, roomno, {courseno, labmark, subject})
studno name, tutor
courseno subject
tutor roomno, roomno tutor
studno, courseno labmark
STUDENT
(studno, name, tutor, roomno)
studno name, tutor
tutor roomno,
roomno tutor

ENROL (studno, courseno, subject, labmark)

courseno subject
studno, courseno labmark

Second Normal Form (2NF)

Definition

the relation is in 1 NF
all non-key attributes are fully functionally dependent on the
entire key
partial dependency has been removed

Example
ENROL (studno, courseno, subject, labmark)
courseno subject
studno, courseno labmark
ENROL (studno, courseno, labmark)
studno, courseno labmark

COURSE (courseno, subject)

courseno subject

Third Normal Form (3NF)

Definition

the relation is in 2NF

all transitive dependencies have been removed.
Transitive dependency: non-key attribute dependent on another
non-key attribute.
STUDENT (studno, name, tutor, roomno)
studno name, tutor
tutor roomno
roomno tutor

STUDENT (studno, name, tutor)

studno name, tutor

TUTOR (tutor, roomno)

tutor roomno
roomno tutor

Example

STUDENT (studno, name, tutor)

studno name, tutor

TUTOR (tutor, roomno)

tutor roomno
roomno tutor

ENROL
(studno, courseno, labmark)
studno, courseno labmark

COURSE (courseno, subject)

courseno subject

Boye-Codd Normal Form (BCNF)

Definition

the relation is in 3NF

any remaining anomalies that result form functional
dependencies have been removed.

More Normal Forms

Fourth Normal Form (4NF)

Fifth Normal Form (5NF)

the relation is in BCNF

any multivalued dependencies have been removed.

the relation is in 4NF

any remaining anomalies that result form join dependencies
have been removed.

Remarks

only in rare situations that a relation in 3NF is not in 4NF or

5NF.
most relations that are in 3NF are also in BCNF.

Lossless or Non-additive Join

Given R ~ a relational scheme, F ~ a set of functional
dependencies on R.
Decomposition R = (R1, R2)

The decomposition of R is non-additive if at least one of

the following functional dependencies are in F+
R1 R2 R1
R1 R2 R2

The

decomposition of R is non-additive if for every state r

of R that satisfies F
<R1> (r)* ...* <Rm> (r) = r

Lossless or Non-additive Join

ENROL (studno, courseno, subject, labmark)
courseno subject
studno, courseno labmark
COURSE (courseno, subject)
courseno subject

ENROL (studno, courseno, labmark)

studno, courseno labmark

ENROL COURSE = courseno

courseno subject
(courseno, subject) = COURSE

Lossless or Non-additive Join

STUDENT
studno name
s1
jones
s2
brown
s3
smith
s4
bloggs
s5
jones
s6
peters
STUDENT1
studno name
s1
jones
s2
brown
s3
smith
s4
bloggs
s5
jones
s6
peters

STUDENT1

tutor
bush
kahn
goble
goble
zobel
kahn

tutor
bush
kahn
goble
goble
zobel
kahn

roomno
2.26
IT206
2.82
2.82
2.34
IT206

studno name
studno tutor

studno name
studno tutor
tutor roomno
roomno tutor

TUTOR
tutor
kahn
bush
goble
zobel

roomno
IT206
2.26
2.82
2.34

tutor roomno
roomno tutor

TUTORS = STUDENT

Dependency Preservation

The union of dependencies that hold on the individual

relations in decomposition D must be equivalent to F.
Given F on R, F(Ri) where Ri R
is the set of dependencies XY in F+ such that the
attributes in X Y are all contained in Ri
Decomposition D = {R1, R2, ..., Rm} of R is dependency
preserving w.r.t. F if
(F(R1)) .... F(Rm)))+ = F+
Given the restriction of functional dependencies to a
relation is the fds that involve attributes of that relation Fi
for Ri
n
n
U Fi F possible, but...
(U Fi)+ = F+
i=1
i =1

Dependency Preservation
STUDENT
studno name
s1
jones
s2
brown
s3
smith
s4
bloggs
s5
jones
s6
peters

STUDENT'
studno name
s1
jones
s2
brown
s3
smith
s4
bloggs
s5
jones
s6
peters

studno name
studno tutor

tutor
bush
kahn
goble
goble
zobel
kahn

roomno
2.26
IT206
2.82
2.82
2.34
IT206

appraiser
capon
watson
capon
capon
watson
watson

studno name
studno tutor
tutor roomno
tutor appraiser
roomno tutor
roomno appraiser
studno appraiser
studno roomno
studno appraiser
studno roomno

tutor
bush
kahn
goble
goble
zobel
kahn

TUTOR
studno
s1
s2
s3
s4
s5
s6

STUDENT

roomno
2.26
IT206
2.82
2.82
2.34
IT206

appraiser
capon
watson
capon
capon
watson
watson

* TUTOR = STUDENT

Designing a relational schema

Build a relational database

without redundancy
normalisation
without loss of information or gain of data
lossless join decomposition
without losing dependency integrity
dependency preservation

Exercises

10