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Entity and Attribute Shape: First Normal Form

The First Normal Form requires that entities have atomic attributes containing single values, all entities have the same number of attributes, and all entities are unique. For an entity to be in First Normal Form, its attributes must provide details only about the primary key and cannot describe other attributes. Violations of First Normal Form result in messy data that is difficult to handle due to storing multiple values where only one should be.

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srinav
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42 views

Entity and Attribute Shape: First Normal Form

The First Normal Form requires that entities have atomic attributes containing single values, all entities have the same number of attributes, and all entities are unique. For an entity to be in First Normal Form, its attributes must provide details only about the primary key and cannot describe other attributes. Violations of First Normal Form result in messy data that is difficult to handle due to storing multiple values where only one should be.

Uploaded by

srinav
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Entity and Attribute Shape: First Normal Form

The First Normal Form is centered around making sure that entities and
attributes are shaped
correctly. The requirements largely mirror the requirements for a relation in
relational theories.
For an entity to be in First Normal Form, it must have the following
characteristics:
• All attributes must be atomic; that is, only a single value represented in a
single
attribute in a single instance of an entity.
• All instances of an entity must contain the same number of values.
• All instances of an entity must be different.
First Normal Form violations manifest themselves in the implemented
model with messy
data-handling situations, usually because of having to decode multiple
values stored where a
single one should be.

Non-key attributes must provide a detail about the key, the whole key, and
nothing but
the key.
This means that non-key attributes have to further describe the key of the
entity, and not
describe any other attributes. I’ll cover the following Normal Forms:
• Second Normal Form: Relationships between non-key attributes and part
of the
primary key
• Third Normal Form: Relationships between non-key attributes
• BCNF: Relationships between non-key attributes and any key

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