NORMALIZATION

Objective
 Normalization presents a set of rules that tables
and databases must follow to be well structured.
 Historically presented as a sequence of normal
forms
First Normal From
 A table is in the first normal form iff
 The domain of each attribute contains only
atomic values, and
 The value of each attribute contains only a
single value from that domain.

In layman's terms. it means every column of

your table should only contain single values
Example
 For a library

Patron ID Borrowed books

C45 B33, B44, B55
C12 B56
1-NF Solution
Patron ID Borrowed book
C45 B33
C45 B44
C45 B33
C12 B56
Example
 For an airline

Flight Weekdays
UA59 Mo We Fr
UA73 Mo Tu We Th Fr
1NF Solution

Flight Weekday
UA59 Mo
UA59 We
UA59 Fr
UA73 Mo
UA73 We
… …
Functional dependency
Let X and Y be sets of attributes in a table T
 Y is functionally dependent on X in T iff for
each set x  R.X there is precisely one
corresponding set y R.Y
 Y is fully functional dependent on X in T if Y is
functional dependent on X and Y is not
functional dependent on any proper subset of X
Example
 Book table
BookNo Title Author Year
B1 Moby Dick H. Melville 1851
B2 Lincoln G. Vidal 1984

Author attribute is:

 functionally dependent on the pair
{ BookNo, Title}
 fully functionally dependent on BookNo
Why it matters
 table BorrowedBooks

BookNo Patron Address Due

B1 J. Fisher 101 Main Street 3/2/15
B2 L. Perez 202 Market Street 2/28/15

Address attribute is
 functionally dependent on the pair
{ BookNo, Patron}
 fully functionally dependent on Patron
Problems
 Cannot insert new patrons in the system until they
have borrowed books
 Insertion anomaly
 Must update all rows involving a given patron if he or
she moves.
 Update anomaly
 Will lose information about patrons that have returned
all the books they have borrowed
 Deletion anomaly
Second Normal Form
 A table is in 2NF iff
 It is in 1NF and
 no non-prime attribute is dependent on any
proper subset of any candidate key of the table
 A non-prime attribute of a table is an attribute that
is not a part of any candidate key of the table
 A candidate key is a minimal superkey
Example
 Library allows patrons to request books that are
currently out

BookNo Patron PhoneNo

B3 J. Fisher 555-1234
B2 J. Fisher 555-1234
B2 M. Amer 555-4321
Example
 Candidate key is {BookNo, Patron}
 We have
 Patron → PhoneNo
 Table is not 2NF
 Potential for
 Insertion anomalies

 Update anomalies

 Deletion anomalies
2NF Solution
 Put telephone number in separate Patron table

BookNo Patron Patron PhoneNo

B3 J. Fisher J. Fisher 555-1234
B2 J. Fisher M. Amer 555-4321
B2 M. Amer
Third Normal Form
 A table is in 3NF iff
 it is in 2NF and
 all its attributes are determined only by its
candidate keys and not by any non-prime
attributes
Example
 Table BorrowedBooks

BookNo Patron Address Due

B1 J. Fisher 101 Main Street 3/2/15
B2 L. Perez 202 Market Street 2/28/15

 Candidate key is BookNo

 Patron → Address
3NF Solution
 Put address in separate Patron table
BookNo Patron Due
B1 J. Fisher 3/2/15
B2 L. Perez 2/28/15

Patron Address
J. Fisher 101 Main Street
L. Perez 202 Market Street
Another example
 Tournament winners

Tournament Year Winner DOB

Indiana Invitational 1998 Al Fredrickson 21 July 1975

Cleveland Open 1999 Bob Albertson 28 Sept. 1968

Des Moines Masters 1999 Al Fredrickson 21 July 1975
 Candidate key is {Tournament, Year}
 Winner →DOB
Boyce-Codd Normal Form
 Stricter form of 3NF
 A table T is in BCNF iff
 for every one of its non-trivial dependencies
X → Y, X is a super key for T

 Most tables that are in 3NF also are in BCNF

Example
Manager Project Branch
Alice Alpha Austin
Alice Delta Austin
Carol Alpha Houston
Dean Delta Houston

 We can assume
 Manager → Branch
 {Project, Branch} → Manager
Example
Manager Project Branch
Alice Alpha Austin
Bob Delta Houston
Carol Alpha Houston
Alice Delta Austin

 Not in BCNF because Manager → Branch and

Manager is not a superkey
 Will decomposition work?
A decomposition (I)
Manager Project Manager Branch
Alice Alpha Alice Austin
Bob Delta Bob Houston
Carol Alpha Carol Houston
Alice Delta
 Two-table solution does not preserve the
dependency {Project, Branch} → Manager
A decomposition (II)
Manager Project Manager Branch
Alice Alpha Alice Austin
Bob Delta Bob Houston
Carol Alpha Carol Houston
Alice Delta Dean Houston
Dean Delta
 Cannot have two or more managers managing
the same project at the same branch
Multivalued dependencies
 Assume the column headings in a table
are divided into three disjoint groupings X,
Y, and Z
 For a particular row, we can refer to the
data beneath each group of headings as x,
y, and z respectively
Multivalued dependencies
 A multivalued dependency X =>Y occurs if
 For any xc actually occurring in the table and the list
of all the xcyz combinations that occur
in the table, we will find that xc is associated with the
same y entries regardless of z.
 A trivial multivalued dependency X =>Y is one where
either
 Y is a subset of X, or

 Z is empty (X  Y has all column headings)

Fourth Normal Form
 A table is in 4NF iff
 For every one of its non-trivial multivalued
dependencies X => Y, X is either:
 A candidate key or

 A superset of a candidate key

Example from Wikipedia
Restaurant Pizza DeliveryArea
Pizza Milano Thin crust SW Houston
Pizza Milano Thick crust SW Houston
Pizza Firenze Thin crust NW Houston
Pizza Firenze Thick crust NW Houston
Pizza Milano Thin crust NW Houston
Pizza Milano Thick crust NW Houston
Discussion
 The table has no non-key attributes
 Key is { Restaurant, Pizza, DeliveryArea}
 Two non-trivial multivalued dependencies
 Restaurant => Pizza
 Restaurant => DeliveryArea

since each restaurant delivers the same pizzas

to all its delivery areas
4NF Solution Restaurant DeliveryArea
Pizza Milano SW Houston
Pizza Firenze NW Houston
Pizza Milano NW Houston
 Two separate tables

Restaurant Pizza
Pizza Milano Thin crust
Pizza Milano Thick crust
Pizza Firenze Thin crust
Pizza Firenze Thick crust
Join dependency
 A table T is subject to a join dependency if it
can always be recreated by joining multiple
tables each having a subset of the attributes of T

 The join dependency is said to be trivial if one

of the tables in the join has all the attributes of
the table T
 Notation: *{ A, B, …} on T
Fifth normal form
 A table T is said to be 5NF iff
 Every non-trivial join dependency in it is
implied by its candidate keys

 A join dependency *{A, B, … Z} on T is implied

by the candidate key(s) of T if and only if each of
A, B, …, Z is a superkey for T
An example
Store Brand Product
Circuit City Apple Tablets
Circuit City Apple Phones
Circuit City Toshiba Laptops
CompUSA Apple Laptops

 Note that Circuit City sells Apple tablets and

phones but only Toshiba laptops
A very bad decomposition
Store Product Brand Product
Circuit City Tablets Apple Tablets
Circuit City Phones Apple Phones
Circuit City Laptops Apple Laptops
CompUSA Laptops Toshiba Laptops

 Let see what happens when we do a natural join

The result of the join
Store Brand Product
Circuit City Apple Tablets
Circuit City Apple Phones
Circuit City Apple Laptops
Circuit City Toshiba Laptops
CompUSA Apple Laptops
CompUSA Toshiba Laptops

 Introduces two spurious tuples

A different table
Store Brand Product
Circuit City Apple Tablets
Circuit City Apple Phones
Circuit City Apple Laptops
Circuit City Toshiba Laptops
CompUSA Apple Laptops

 Assume now that any store carrying a given

brand and selling a product that is made by that
brand will always carry that product
The same decomposition
Store Product Brand Product
Circuit City Tablets Apple Tablets
Circuit City Phones Apple Phones
Circuit City Laptops Apple Laptops
CompUSA Laptops Toshiba Laptops

 Let see what happens when we do a natural join

The result of the join
Store Brand Product
Circuit City Apple Tablets
Circuit City Apple Phones
Circuit City Apple Laptops
Circuit City Toshiba Laptops
CompUSA Apple Laptops
CompUSA Toshiba Laptops

 Still one spurious tuple

The right decomposition
Store Product Brand Product
Circuit City Tablets Apple Tablets
Circuit City Phones Apple Phones
Circuit City Laptops Apple Laptops
CompUSA Laptops Toshiba Laptops

Store Brand
Circuit City Apple
Circuit City Toshiba
CompUSA Apple
Conclusion
 The first "big" table was 5NF
 The second table was decomposable