Normalization

A large database defined as a single relation may result in data duplication.

This repetition of data may result in:

o Making relations very large.

o It isn't easy to maintain and update data as it would involve searching many
records in relation.
o Wastage and poor utilization of disk space and resources.
o The likelihood of errors and inconsistencies increases.

So to handle these problems, we should analyze and decompose the

relations with redundant data into smaller, simpler, and well-structured
relations that are satisfy desirable properties.

Normalization is a process of decomposing the relations into relations with

fewer attributes.

What is 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.

Types of Normal Forms:

Normalization works through a series of stages called Normal forms. The
normal forms apply to individual relations. The relation is said to be in
particular normal form if it satisfies constraints.

Following are the various types of Normal forms:

Normal Description
Form

1NF A relation is in 1NF if it contains an atomic value.

2NF A relation will be in 2NF if it is in 1NF and all non-key attributes are fully
functional dependent on the primary key.

3NF A relation will be in 3NF if it is in 2NF and no transition dependency

exists.

BCNF A stronger definition of 3NF is known as Boyce Codd's normal form.

4NF A relation will be in 4NF if it is in Boyce Codd's normal form and has no
multi-valued dependency.

5NF A relation is in 5NF. If it is in 4NF and does not contain any join
dependency, joining should be lossless.

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

14 John 7272826385, UP
9064738238

20 Harry 8574783832 Bihar

12 Sam 7390372389, Punjab

8589830302

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

Example: Let's assume, a school can store the data of teachers and the
subjects they teach. In a school, a teacher can teach more than one subject.

TEACHER table

TEACHER_ID SUBJECT TEACHER_AGE

25 Chemistry 30

25 Biology 30

47 English 35

83 Math 38

83 Computer 38

In the given table, non-prime attribute TEACHER_AGE is dependent on

TEACHER_ID which is a proper subset of a candidate key. That's why it
violates the rule for 2NF.

To convert the given table into 2NF, we decompose it into two tables:

TEACHER_DETAIL table:

TEACHER_ID TEACHER_AGE

25 30

47 35

83 38
TEACHER_SUBJECT table:

TEACHER_ID SUBJECT

25 Chemistry

25 Biology

47 English

83 Math

83 Computer
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:

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.

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}

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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

264 India

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
 Functional dependencies:

1. EMP_ID → EMP_COUNTRY
2. EMP_DEPT → {DEPT_TYPE, EMP_DEPT_NO}

Candidate keys:

For the first table: EMP_ID

For the second table: EMP_DEPT

For the third table: {EMP_ID, EMP_DEPT}

Now, this is in BCNF because left side part of both the functional
dependencies 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
SUBJECT LECTURER SEMESTER

Computer Anshika Semester 1

Computer John Semester 1

Math John Semester 1

Math Akash Semester 2

Chemistry Praveen Semester 1

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.

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

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
Lossless Join and Dependency Preserving
Decomposition
Decomposition of a relation is done when a relation in a relational
model is not in appropriate normal form. Relation R is decomposed
into two or more relations if decomposition is lossless join as well
as dependency preserving.

Lossless Join Decomposition

Decomposition is lossy if R1 ⋈ R2 ⊃ R
If we decompose a relation R into relations R1 and R2,

Decomposition is lossless if R1 ⋈ R2 = R

To check for lossless join decomposition using the FD set,

the following conditions must hold:

1. The Union of Attributes of R1 and R2 must be equal to the

attribute of R. Each attribute of R must be either in R1 or in R2.
Att(R1) U Att(R2) = Att(R)

2. The intersection of Attributes of R1 and R2 must not be NULL.

Att(R1) ∩ Att(R2) ≠ Φ

3. The common attribute must be a key for at least one relation (R1
or R2)
Att(R1) ∩ Att(R2) -> Att(R1) or Att(R1) ∩ Att(R2) -> Att(R2)

For Example, A relation R (A, B, C, D) with FD set{A->BC} is

decomposed into R1(ABC) and R2(AD) which is a lossless join
decomposition as:

1. First condition holds true as Att(R1) U Att(R2) = (ABC) U (AD) =

(ABCD) = Att(R).
2. Second condition holds true as Att(R1) ∩ Att(R2) = (ABC) ∩ (AD)
≠Φ
3. The third condition holds as Att(R1) ∩ Att(R2) = A is a key of
R1(ABC) because A->BC is given.
Dependency Preserving Decomposition

If we decompose a relation R into relations R1 and R2, All

dependencies of R either must be a part of R1 or R2 or must be
derivable from a combination of functional dependency of R1 and
R2.

For Example, A relation R (A, B, C, D) with FD set{A->BC} is

decomposed into R1(ABC) and R2(AD) which is dependency
preserving because FD A->BC is a part of R1(ABC).

Advantages of Lossless Join and Dependency Preserving

Decomposition
 Improved Data Integrity: Lossless join and dependency
preserving decomposition help to maintain the data integrity of
the original relation by ensuring that all dependencies are
preserved.
 Reduced Data Redundancy: These techniques help to
reduce data redundancy by breaking down a relation into smaller,
more manageable relations.
 Improved Query Performance: By breaking down a relation
into smaller, more focused relations, query performance can be
improved.
 Easier Maintenance and Updates: The smaller, more focused
relations are easier to maintain and update than the original
relation, making it easier to modify the database schema and
update the data.
 Better Flexibility: Lossless join and dependency preserving
decomposition can improve the flexibility of the database system
by allowing for easier modification of the schema.

Disadvantages of Lossless Join and Dependency Preserving

Decomposition
 Increased Complexity: Lossless join and dependency-
preserving decomposition can increase the complexity of the
database system, making it harder to understand and manage.
 Costly: Decomposing relations can be costly, especially if the
database is large and complex. This can require additional
resources, such as hardware and personnel.
 Reduced Performance: Although query performance can be
improved in some cases, in others, lossless join and dependency-
preserving decomposition can result in reduced query
performance due to the need for additional join operations.
 Limited Scalability: These techniques may not scale well in
larger databases, as the number of smaller, focused relations can
become unwieldy.