Unit four :-Relation Database Design

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 the undesirable characteristics like Insertion, Update and Deletion Anomalies.
o Normalization divides the larger table into the smaller table and links them using relationship.
o The normal form is used to reduce redundancy from the database table.

Types of Normal Forms

There are the four types of normal forms:

Normal Form Description

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.
4NF A relation will be in 4NF if it is in Boyce Codd normal form and has no multi-valued
dependency.
5NF A relation is in 5NF if it is in 4NF and not contains any join dependency and joining
should be lossless.

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_NA EMP_ZI EMP_STA EMP_CI

ME P TE TY
222 Harry 20101 UP Noida
0
333 Stephan 02228 US Boston
444 Lan 60007 US Chicag
o
555 Katharin 06389 UK Norwic
e h
666 John 46200 MP Bhopal
7

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}

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
STU_ID COURSE HOBBY
21 Computer Dancing
21 Math Singing
34 Chemistry Dancing
74 Biology Cricket
59 Physics Hockey

STUDENT

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

SEMSTER LECTURER
Semester 1 Anshika
Semester 1 John
Semester 1 John
Semester 2 Akash
Semester 1 Praveen
Relational Decomposition
o When a relation in the relational model is not in appropriate normal form then the
decomposition of a relation is required.
o In a database, it breaks the table into multiple tables.
o If the relation has no proper decomposition, then it may lead to problems like loss of
information.
o Decomposition is used to eliminate some of the problems of bad design like anomalies,
inconsistencies, and redundancy.

Types of Decomposition
Lossless Decomposition
o If the information is not lost from the relation that is decomposed, then the decomposition will
be lossless.
o The lossless decomposition guarantees that the join of relations will result in the same relation
as it was decomposed.
o The relation is said to be lossless decomposition if natural joins of all the decomposition give
the original relation.

Example:

EMPLOYEE_DEPARTMENT table:

EMP_ID EMP_NAME EMP_AGE EMP_CITY DEPT_ID DEPT_NAME

22 Denim 28 Mumbai 827 Sales

33 Alina 25 Delhi 438 Marketing
46 Stephan 30 Bangalor 869 Finance
e
52 Katherine 36 Mumbai 575 Production
60 Jack 40 Noida 678 Testing

The above relation is decomposed into two relations EMPLOYEE and DEPARTMENT

EMPLOYEE table:

EMP_ID EMP_NAME EMP_AGE EMP_CITY

22 Denim 28 Mumbai
33 Alina 25 Delhi
46 Stephan 30 Bangalore
52 Katherine 36 Mumbai
60 Jack 40 Noida

DEPARTMENT table

DEPT_ID EMP_ID DEPT_NAME

827 22 Sales
438 33 Marketing
869 46 Finance
575 52 Production
678 60 Testing
 Now, when these two relations are joined on the common column "EMP_ID", then the resultant
relation will look like:

Employee ⋈ Department

EMP_ID EMP_NAME EMP_AGE EMP_CITY DEPT_ID DEPT_NAME

22 Denim 28 Mumbai 827 Sales
33 Alina 25 Delhi 438 Marketing
46 Stephan 30 Bangalore 869 Finance
52 Katherine 36 Mumbai 575 Production
60 Jack 40 Noida 678 Testing

Hence, the decomposition is Lossless join decomposition.

Dependency Preserving
o It is an important constraint of the database.
o In the dependency preservation, at least one decomposed table must satisfy every dependency.
o If a relation R is decomposed into relation R1 and R2, then the dependencies of R either must
be a part of R1 or R2 or must be derivable from the combination of functional dependencies of
R1 and R2.
o For example, suppose there is a relation R (A, B, C, D) with functional dependency set (A->BC).
The relational R is decomposed into R1(ABC) and R2(AD) which is dependency preserving
because FD A->BC is a part of relation R1(ABC).

Multivalued Dependency
o Multivalued dependency occurs when two attributes in a table are independent of each other
but, both depend on a third attribute.
o A multivalued dependency consists of at least two attributes that are dependent on a third
attribute that's why it always requires at least three attributes.

Example: Suppose there is a bike manufacturer company which produces two colors(white and black)
of each model every year.

BIKE_MODEL MANUF_YEAR COLOR

M2011 2008 White
M2001 2008 Black
M3001 2013 White
M3001 2013 Black
M4006 2017 White
M4006 2017 Black

Here columns COLOR and MANUF_YEAR are dependent on BIKE_MODEL and independent of each
other.In this case, these two columns can be called as multivalued dependent on BIKE_MODEL. The
representation of these dependencies is shown below:

1. BIKE_MODEL → → MANUF_YEAR
2. BIKE_MODEL → → COLOR

This can be read as "BIKE_MODEL multidetermined MANUF_YEAR" and "BIKE_MODEL multidetermined

COLOR"