Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B.

Navathe Slide 10- 1

Chapter 10
Functional Dependencies and
Normalization for Relational
Databases

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe

Chapter Outline
 1 Informal Design Guidelines for Relational Databases
 1.1Semantics of the Relation Attributes
 1.2 Redundant Information in Tuples and Update Anomalies
 1.3 Null Values in Tuples
 1.4 Spurious Tuples

 2 Functional Dependencies (FDs)

 2.1 Definition of FD
 2.2 Inference Rules for FDs
 2.3 Equivalence of Sets of FDs
 2.4 Minimal Sets of FDs

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 10- 3

Chapter Outline
 3 Normal Forms Based on Primary Keys
 3.1 Normalization of Relations
 3.2 Practical Use of Normal Forms
 3.3 Definitions of Keys and Attributes Participating in Keys
 3.4 First Normal Form
 3.5 Second Normal Form
 3.6 Third Normal Form

 4 General Normal Form Definitions (For Multiple Keys)

 5 BCNF (Boyce-Codd Normal Form)

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 10- 4

1 Informal Design Guidelines for
Relational Databases (1)
 What is relational database design?
 The grouping of attributes to form "good" relation
schemas
 Two levels of relation schemas
 The logical "user view" level
 The storage "base relation" level
 Design is concerned mainly with base relations
 What are the criteria for "good" base relations?

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 10- 5

Informal Design Guidelines for Relational
Databases (2)
 We first discuss informal guidelines for good relational
design
 Then we discuss formal concepts of functional
dependencies and normal forms
 - 1NF (First Normal Form)
 - 2NF (Second Normal Form)
 - 3NF (Third Normal Form)
 - BCNF (Boyce-Codd Normal Form)
 Additional types of dependencies, further normal forms,
relational design algorithms by synthesis are discussed in
Chapter 11

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 10- 6

1.1 Semantics of the Relation Attributes
 GUIDELINE 1: Informally, each tuple in a relation should
represent one entity or relationship instance. (Applies to
individual relations and their attributes).
 Attributes of different entities (EMPLOYEEs,
DEPARTMENTs, PROJECTs) should not be mixed in the
same relation
 Only foreign keys should be used to refer to other entities
 Entity and relationship attributes should be kept apart as
much as possible.
 Bottom Line: Design a schema that can be explained
easily relation by relation. The semantics of attributes
should be easy to interpret.

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 10- 7

Figure 10.1 A simplified COMPANY
relational database schema

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 10- 8

1.2 Redundant Information in Tuples and
Update Anomalies
 Information is stored redundantly
 Wastes storage
 Causes problems with update anomalies

Insertion anomalies

Deletion anomalies

Modification anomalies

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 10- 9

EXAMPLE OF AN UPDATE ANOMALY
 Consider the relation:
 EMP_PROJ(Emp#, Proj#, Ename, Pname,
No_hours)
 Update Anomaly:
 Changing the name of project number P1 from
“Billing” to “Customer-Accounting” may cause this
update to be made for all 100 employees working
on project P1.

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 10- 10

EXAMPLE OF AN INSERT ANOMALY
 Consider the relation:
 EMP_PROJ(Emp#, Proj#, Ename, Pname,
No_hours)
 Insert Anomaly:
 Cannot insert a project unless an employee is
assigned to it.
 Conversely
 Cannot insert an employee unless an he/she is
assigned to a project.

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 10- 11

EXAMPLE OF AN DELETE ANOMALY
 Consider the relation:
 EMP_PROJ(Emp#, Proj#, Ename, Pname,
No_hours)
 Delete Anomaly:
 When a project is deleted, it will result in deleting
all the employees who work on that project.
 Alternately, if an employee is the sole employee
on a project, deleting that employee would result in
deleting the corresponding project.

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 10- 12

Figure 10.3 Two relation schemas
suffering from update anomalies

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 10- 13

Figure 10.4 Example States for
EMP_DEPT and EMP_PROJ

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 10- 14

Guideline to Redundant Information in
Tuples and Update Anomalies
 GUIDELINE 2:
 Design a schema that does not suffer from the
insertion, deletion and update anomalies.
 If there are any anomalies present, then note them
so that applications can be made to take them into
account.

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 10- 15

1.3 Null Values in Tuples
 GUIDELINE 3:
 Relations should be designed such that their
tuples will have as few NULL values as possible
 Attributes that are NULL frequently could be
placed in separate relations (with the primary key)
 Reasons for nulls:
 Attribute not applicable or invalid(Student Visa
Status)
 Attribute value unknown (may exist) (Emp DOB)
 Value known to exist, but unavailable (Phone No)

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 10- 16

2.1 Functional Dependencies (1)
 Functional dependencies (FDs)
 Are used to specify formal measures of the
"goodness" of relational designs
 And keys are used to define normal forms for
relations
 Are constraints that are derived from the meaning
and interrelationships of the data attributes
 A set of attributes X functionally determines a set
of attributes Y if the value of X determines a
unique value for Y

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 10- 17

Functional Dependencies (2)
 Written as X -> Y; can be displayed graphically on a
relation schema

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 10- 18

Examples of FD constraints (1)
 Social security number determines employee
name
 SSN -> ENAME
 Project number determines project name and
location
 PNUMBER -> {PNAME, PLOCATION}
 Employee ssn and project number determines the
hours per week that the employee works on the
project
 {SSN, PNUMBER} -> HOURS

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 10- 19

Examples of FD constraints (2)
 An FD is a property of the attributes in the
schema R
 The constraint must hold on every relation
instance r(R)
 If K is a key of R, then K functionally determines
all attributes in R
 (since we never have two distinct tuples with
t1[K]=t2[K])

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 10- 20

2.2 Inference Rules for FDs (1)
 Given a set of FDs F, we can infer additional FDs that
hold whenever the FDs in F hold
 Armstrong's inference rules:
 IR1. (Reflexive) If Y subset-of X, then X -> Y
 IR2. (Augmentation) If X -> Y, then XZ -> YZ

(Notation: XZ stands for X U Z)
 IR3. (Transitive) If X -> Y and Y -> Z, then X -> Z

 IR1, IR2, IR3 form a sound and complete set of

inference rules
 These rules hold and all other rules that hold can be
deduced from these

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 10- 21

Inference Rules for FDs (2)
 Some additional inference rules that are useful:
 Decomposition: If X -> YZ, then X -> Y and X ->
Z
 Union: If X -> Y and X -> Z, then X -> YZ
 Psuedotransitivity: If X -> Y and WY -> Z, then
WX -> Z

 The last three inference rules, as well as any

other inference rules, can be deduced from IR1,
IR2, and IR3 (completeness property)

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 10- 22

Inference Rules for FDs (3)
 Closure of a set F of FDs is the set F+ of all FDs
that can be inferred from F

 Closure of a set of attributes X with respect to F

is the set X+ of all attributes that are functionally
determined by X

 X+ can be calculated by repeatedly applying IR1,

IR2, IR3 using the FDs in F

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 10- 23

Example
 Let we specify the following set F of functional
dependencies that should hold on EMP_PROJ:
F = {SSN->ENAME,
PNUMBER->{PNAME, PLOCATION},
{SSN, PNUMBER}->HOURS}

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 10- 24

Example (Cont..)
 we calculate the following closure sets with
respect to F:
 { SSN }+ = { SSN, ENAME }

 { PNUMBER }+ = { PNUMBER, PNAME,

PLOCATION }

 { SSN, PNUMBER }+ = { SSN, PNUMBER,

HOURS }

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 10- 25

Example (Cont..)
 Functional Dependency set
 { STUD_NO->STUD_NAME,
STUD_NO->STUD_PHONE,
STUD_NO->STUD_STATE,
STUD_NO->STUD_COUNTRY,
STUD_NO -> STUD_AGE,
STUD_STATE->STUD_COUNTRY }

 Closure Set
 (STUD_NO)+ = {STUD_NO, STUD_NAME, STUD_PHONE,
STUD_STATE, STUD_COUNTRY, STUD_AGE}
(STUD_STATE)+ = {STUD_STATE, STUD_COUNTRY}

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 10- 26

Full Functional Dependency
 Full Functional Dependency:
 Only of relevance with composite determinants.
 This is the situation when it is necessary to use all the
attributes of the composite determinant to identify its object
uniquely.

Full Functional Dependencies

order# line# qty price (Order#, line#)  qty
(Order#, line#)  price
A001 001 10 200
A002 001 20 400
A002 002 25 800
A004 001 15 300

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 10- 27

Partial Functional Dependency
 Partial Functional Dependency:
 This is the situation that exists if it is necessary to only use
a subset of the attributes of the composite determinant to
identify its object uniquely.

Example: Full Functional Dependencies

student# unit# room grade (student#, unit#)  grade
9900100 A01 TH224 2
9900010 A01 TH224 14
9901011 A02 JS075 3 Partial Functional Dependencies
9900001 A01 TH224 16 unit#  room

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 10- 28

Functional Dependency: Exercise

Abbreviations Meaning
A Employee no
B Dept no
C Manager’s emp no
D Proj no directed by that manager
E Dept name
F Time allocated to specified proj

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 10- 29

Functional Dependency: Exercise

Abbreviations Meaning
A  BC Employee no  Deptno,
Manager’s emp no
BE Dept no  Dept name
CD  EF Manager’s emp no, Proj no
directed by that manager 
Dept name, Time allocated to
specified proj
We now show that FD (AD  F) holds in R

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 10- 30

Solution
 As A  BC (given)
 So, A  C (1, decomposition)
 And AD  CD (2, augmentation)

 Similarly, as CD  EF (given)
 So AD  EF (3 and 4, transitivity)
 Hence, AD  F (5, decomposition)

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 10- 31

Functional Dependency

Example:

staffNo job dept dname

SL10 Salesman 10 Sales
SA51 Manager 20 Accounts
DS40 Clerk 20 Accounts
OS45 Clerk 30 Operations

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe

Functional Dependency

Example:

staffNo job dept dname

SL10 Salesman 10 Sales
SA51 Manager 20 Accounts
DS40 Clerk 20 Accounts
OS45 Clerk 30 Operations

Functional Dependencies
staffNo  job
staffNo  dept
staffNo  dname
dept  dname
Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe
 Steps in normalization

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe

3 Normal Forms Based on Primary Keys
 3.1 Normalization of Relations
 3.2 Practical Use of Normal Forms
 3.3 Definitions of Keys and Attributes
Participating in Keys
 3.4 First Normal Form
 3.5 Second Normal Form
 3.6 Third Normal Form

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 10- 35

3.1 Normalization of Relations (1)
 Normalization:
 The process of decomposing unsatisfactory "bad"
relations by breaking up their attributes into
smaller relations

 Normal form:
 Condition using keys and FDs of a relation to
certify whether a relational schema is in a
particular normal form

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 10- 36

Normalization of Relations (2)
 2NF, 3NF, BCNF
 based on keys and FDs of a relational schema
 4NF
 based on keys, multi-valued dependencies :
MVDs; 5NF based on keys, join dependencies :
JDs (Chapter 11)
 Additional properties may be needed to ensure a
good relational design (lossless join, dependency
preservation; Chapter 11)

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 10- 37

3.2 Practical Use of Normal Forms
 Normalization is carried out in practice so that the
resulting designs are of high quality and meet the
desirable properties
 The practical utility of these normal forms becomes
questionable when the constraints on which they are
based are hard to understand or to detect
 The database designers need not normalize to the highest
possible normal form

(usually up to 3NF, BCNF or 4NF)
 Denormalization:

The process of storing the join of higher normal form
relations as a base relation—which is in a lower normal form

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 10- 38

3.2 First Normal Form
 Disallows
 composite attributes
 multivalued attributes
 nested relations; attributes whose values for an
individual tuple are non-atomic

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 10- 39

Figure 10.8 Normalization into 1NF

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 10- 40

Figure 10.9 Normalization nested
relations into 1NF

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 10- 41

Another Example: Bringing a
Relation to 1NF
Option 1: Make a determinant of the repeating group (or
the multivalued attribute) a part of the primary key.

Composite
Primary
Key

STUDENT

Stud_ID Name Course_ID Units

101 Lennon MSI 250 3.00
101 Lennon MSI 415 3.00
125 Johnson MSI 331 3.00

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 10- 42

Another Example: Bringing a
Relation to 1NF
 Option 2: Remove the entire repeating group from
the relation.
 Create another relation which would contain all the attributes of
the repeating group, plus the primary key from the first relation.
 In this new relation, the primary key from the original relation
and the determinant of the repeating group will comprise a
primary key.

STUDENT

Stud_ID Name Course_ID Units

101 Lennon MSI 250 3.00
101 Lennon MSI 415 3.00
125 Johnson MSI 331 3.00

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 10- 43

Another Example: Bringing a
Relation to 1NF
STUDENT

Stud_ID Name
101 Lennon
125 Jonson

STUDENT_COURSE

Stud_ID Course Units

101 MSI 250 3
101 MSI 415 3
125 MSI 331 3

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 10- 44

3.3 Second Normal Form (1)
 Uses the concepts of FDs, primary key
 Definitions
 Prime attribute: An attribute that is member of the primary
key K
 Full functional dependency: a FD Y -> Z where removal
of any attribute from Y means the FD does not hold any
more
 Examples:
 {SSN, PNUMBER} -> HOURS is a full FD since neither SSN
-> HOURS nor PNUMBER -> HOURS hold
 {SSN, PNUMBER} -> ENAME is not a full FD (it is called a
partial dependency ) since SSN -> ENAME also holds

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 10- 45

Second Normal Form (2)
 A relation schema R is in second normal form
(2NF) if every non-prime attribute A in R is fully
functionally dependent on the primary key

 R can be decomposed into 2NF relations via the

process of 2NF normalization

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 10- 46

Bringing a Relation to 2NF

Composite
Primary
Key

STUDENT

Stud_ID Name Course_ID Units

101 Lennon MSI 250 3.00
101 Lennon MSI 415 3.00
125 Johnson MSI 331 3.00

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 10- 47

Bringing a Relation to 2NF
 Goal: Remove Partial Dependencies
Composite Partial
Primary Dependencies
Key

STUDENT

Stud_ID Name Course_ID Units

101 Lennon MSI 250 3.00
101 Lennon MSI 415 3.00
125 Johnson MSI 331 3.00

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 10- 48

Bringing a Relation to 2NF
 Remove attributes that are dependent from the part but not the
whole of the primary key from the original relation.
 For each partial dependency, create a new relation, with the
corresponding part of the primary key from the original as the
primary key.
STUDENT

Stud_ID Name Course_ID Units

101 Lennon MSI 250 3.00
101 Lennon MSI 415 3.00
125 Johnson MSI 331 3.00

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 10- 49

Bringing a Relation to 2NF
STUDENT_COURSE

Student
Stud_ID Course_ID
Stud_ID Name Course_ID Units 101 MSI 250
101 Lennon MSI 250 3.00
101 Lennon MSI 415 3.00
101 MSI 415
125 Johnson MSI 331 3.00
125 MSI 331

STUDENT COURSE

Stud_ID Name Course_ID Units

101 Lennon MSI 250 3.00
101 Lennon MSI 415 3.00
125 Johnson MSI 331 3.00
Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 10- 50
3.4 Third Normal Form (1)
 Definition:
 Transitive functional dependency: a FD X -> Z
that can be derived from two FDs X -> Y and Y ->
Z
 Examples:
 SSN -> DMGRSSN is a transitive FD

Since SSN -> DNUMBER and DNUMBER ->
DMGRSSN hold
 SSN -> ENAME is non-transitive

Since there is no set of attributes X where SSN -> X
and X -> ENAME

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 10- 51

Third Normal Form (2)
 A relation schema R is in third normal form (3NF) if it is
in 2NF and no non-prime attribute A in R is transitively
dependent on the primary key
 R can be decomposed into 3NF relations via the process
of 3NF normalization
 NOTE:
 In X -> Y and Y -> Z, with X as the primary key, we consider
this a problem only if Y is not a candidate key.
 When Y is a candidate key, there is no problem with the
transitive dependency .
 E.g., Consider EMP (SSN, Emp#, Salary ).

Here, SSN -> Emp# -> Salary and Emp# is a candidate key.

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 10- 52

Bringing a Relation to 3NF
 Goal: Get rid of transitive dependencies.

Transitive
Dependency
EMPLOYEE

Emp_ID F_Name L_Name Dept_ID Dept_Name

111 Mary Jones 1 Acct
122 Sarah Smith 2 Mktg

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 10- 53

Bringing a Relation to 3NF
 Remove the attributes, which are dependent on a non-key attribute, from the original
relation.
 For each transitive dependency,
 create a new relation with the non-key attribute which is a determinant in
the transitive dependency as a primary key,
 and the dependent non-key attribute as a dependent.

EMPLOYEE

Emp_ID F_Name L_Name Dept_ID Dept_Name

111 Mary Jones 1 Acct
122 Sarah Smith 2 Mktg

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 10- 54

Bringing a Relation to 3NF
EMPLOYEE

Emp_ID F_Name L_Name Dept_ID Dept_Name

111 Mary Jones 1 Acct
122 Sarah Smith 2 Mktg

EMPLOYEE

Emp_ID F_Name L_Name Dept_ID

111 Mary Jones 1
122 Sarah Smith 2

DEPARTMENT

Dept_ID Dept_Name
1 Acct
2 Mktg

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 10- 55

Example
Primary Key (Supplier#, Part#)

S# Status City P# Qty

S1 20 London P1 1600

S1 20 London P2 2000

S2 10 Paris P2 500
S3 20 London P3 3000

 Insert - cannot insert the fact that a supplier is located in a

particular city until supplier supplies at least one part
 Delete - delete the value P3, and we also lose the information
that S3 is located in London
 Update - S1 appears in the table more than once, and we must
change all of them -- Possibility of producing an inconsistent
result.

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe

Example
 By analyzing a given relation, we can identify some
dependencies between its attributes.
 In principle, we want to make attributes independent of
each other as far as possible, so that updating one attribute
will have no impact on the others.

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe

2NF Example

 FIRST {S#, STATUS, CITY, P#, QTY}

 Primary key: {S#, P#}
 {S#} -> {CITY}, {CITY} -> {STATUS}

 Test of 2NF
 {S#} -> {STATUS, CITY}: partial dependencies.
 FIRST is in 1NF, but not in 2NF.

 Decomposition:
 SECOND {S#, STATUS, CITY}
 SP {S# (FK: references SECOND), P#, QTY}

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe

2NF-Solution to Problems
 The solution is to replace the relation by two new
relations (called One and Two)
One: Primary Key (Supplier#) Two: Primary Key (Supplier#, Part#)
Supplier# Status City Supplier# Part# Quantity
S1 20 London S1 P1 1600
S2 10 Paris S1 P2 2000
S3 20 London S2 P2 500
S3 P3 3000
 This revised structure overcomes all the problems sketched earlier, but:
• Insert - cannot insert the fact that a particular city has a status until a
supplier is actually located in that city.
• Delete - delete the value S2, and we also lose the information that
Paris has the status value 10.
• Update - Status value 20 appears in the table more than once.
Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe
Third Normal Form (3NF)
 A table is in 3NF if and only if
 it is in 2NF and
 every non-key attribute is non-transitively dependent
on the primary key.

 3NF prohibits transitive dependencies.

 If A -> B and B -> C, C is transitively dependent

on A.

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe

3NF Example

 SECOND {S#, STATUS, CITY}

 Primary key: {S#}
 {S#} -> {CITY}, {CITY} -> {STATUS}

 Test of 3NF:
 {S#} -> {CITY} -> {STATUS}: transitive dependency
 SECOND is in 2NF, but not 3NF.

 Decomposition:
 CS {CITY, STATUS}
 SC {S#, CITY (FK: references CS)}

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe

Third Normal Form (3NF)
 A relation is in 3NF if and only if it is 2NF and all non-
key fields are mutually independent.
One: Primary Key (Supplier#) Two: Primary Key (Supplier#, Part#)

Supplier# Status City Supplier# Part# Quantity

S1 20 London S1 P1 1600

S2 10 Paris S1 P2 2000

S3 20 London S2 P2 500
S3 P3 3000
 Note: Relation Two is in 3NF (with only one non-key field),
but relation One is not in 3NF because Status is dependent
on City (both are non-key fields)

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe

3NF - Converting 2NF into 3NF

 We can now normalize relation One into two new relations

(called three and four), which both are in 3NF.

Three: Primary Key (Supplier#)

Four: Primary Key (City)
Supplier# City
S1 London City Status
London 20
S2 Paris
Paris 10
S3 London

 Higher Normal Forms (e.g. 4NF and 5NF) do exist,

but they are mainly of interest in academic societies
rather than in the practical applications of database
design.
Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe
Normal Forms Defined Informally
 1st normal form
 All attributes depend on the key
 2nd normal form
 All attributes depend on the whole key
 3rd normal form
 All attributes depend on nothing but the key

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 10- 64

Stages of Normalisation

Unnormalised
(UDF) Remove repeating groups

First normal form

(1NF) Remove partial dependencies

Second normal form

(2NF) Remove transitive dependencies

Third normal form

(3NF)

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe

Example 2: University Database
Table
StdSSN StdClass StdCity OfferNo OffYear Offterm EnrGrade CourseNo CrsDesc
S1 JUN ISB O1 2003 1 3.5 C1 DB
S1 JUN ISB O2 2003 2 3.3 C2 VB
S2 JUN ISB O3 2003 1 3.1 C3 OO
S2 JUN ISB O2 2003 1 3.4 C2 VB

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe

Example 2: University Database
Table
StdSSN StdClass StdCity OfferNo OffYear Offterm EnrGrade CourseNo CrsDesc
S1 JUN ISB O1 2003 1 3.5 C1 DB
S1 JUN ISB O2 2003 2 3.3 C2 VB
S2 JUN ISB O3 2003 1 3.1 C3 OO
S2 JUN ISB O2 2003 1 3.4 C2 VB

StdSSN  StdCity, StdClass

OfferNo  OffTerm, OffYear, CourseNo, CrsDesc
CourseNo  CrsDesc
StdSSN, OfferNo  EnrGrade
Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe
Problems

 Anomalies:
- PK: combination of StdSSN and OfferNo
- Insert: cannot insert a new student without enrolling in an
offering (OfferNo part of PK)
- Update: change a course description; change every
enrollment of the course
- Delete: remove third row; lose information about course C3
 Table has obvious redundancies
 Easier to query: no joins
 More difficult to change: can work around problems
(dummy PK) but tedious to do

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe

FD Diagrams and Lists

StdSSN StdCity StdClass OfferNo OffTerm OffYear CourseNo CrsDesc EnrGrade

StdSSN  StdCity, StdClass

OfferNo  OffTerm, OffYear, CourseNo, CrsDesc
CourseNo  CrsDesc
StdSSN, OfferNo  EnrGrade

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe

Normalization

 Process of removing unwanted redundancies

 Apply normal forms

 Identify FDs
 Determine whether FDs meet normal form
 Split the table to meet the normal form if there is a
violation

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe

1NF

 No repeating groups: flat rows

StdSSN StdClass OfferNo OffYear EnrGrade CourseNo CrsDesc

S1 JUN O1 2003 3.5 C1 DB
O2 2003 3.3 C2 VB
S2 JUN O3 2003 3.1 C3 OO
O2 2003 3.4 C2 VB

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe

Combined Definition of 2NF/3NF
 Key column: candidate key or part of candidate
key
 Analogy to the traditional justice oath
 Every non key depends on a key, the whole key,
and nothing but the key
 Usually taught as separate definitions

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe

2NF

 Every nonkey column depends on a whole key,

not part of a key
 Violations
 Part of key  nonkey
 Violations only for combined keys

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe

2NF Example

 Many violations for the big university

database table
 StdSSN  StdCity, StdClass
 OfferNo  OffTerm, OffYear, CourseNo,
CrsDesc
 Splitting the table
 UnivTable1 (StdSSN, StdCity, StdClass)
 UnivTable2 (OfferNo, OffTerm, OffYear,
CourseNo, CrsDesc)

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe

3NF

 Every nonkey column depends only on a key not

on non key columns
 Violations: Nonkey  Nonkey
 Alterative formulation
 No transitive FDs
 A  B, B  C then A  C
 OfferNo  CourseNo, CourseNo  CrsDesc then
OfferNo  CrsDesc

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe

3NF Example
 One violation in UnivTable2
 CourseNo  CrsDesc
 Splitting the table
 UnivTable2-1 (OfferNo, OffTerm, OffYear,
CourseNo)
 UnivTable2-2 (CourseNo, CrsDesc)

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe

Example 2

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe

Unnormalised Normal Form (UNF)
ORDER
Customer No: 001964 Order Number: 00012345
Name: Mark Campbell Order Date: 14-Feb-2002
Address: 1 The House
Leytonstone
E11 9ZZ

Product Product Unit Order Line

Number Description Price Quantity Total
T5060 Hook 5.00 5 25.00
PT42 Bolt 2.50 10 20.50
QZE48 Spanner 20.00 1 20.00

Order Total: 65.50

ORDER (order-no, order-date, cust-no, cust-name, cust-add,

(prod-no, prod-desc, unit-price, ord-qty, line-total)*, order-total
Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe
First Normal Form (1NF)

Definition: A relation is in 1NF if, and only if, all its

underlying attributes contain atomic values only.
Remove repeating groups into a new relation

A repeating group is shown by a pair of brackets within the

relational schema.

ORDER (order-no, order-date, cust-no, cust-name, cust-add,

(prod-no, prod-desc, unit-price, ord-qty, line-total)*, order-total

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe

Steps from UNF to 1NF:

 Remove the outermost repeating group (and any

nested repeated groups it may contain) and create
a new relation to contain it.
 Add to this relation a copy of the PK of the relation
immediately enclosing it.
 Name the new entity (appending the number 1 to
indicate 1NF)
 Determine the PK of the new entity
 Repeat steps until no more repeating groups.

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe

 Example - UNF to 1NF
ORDER (order-no, order-date, cust-no, cust-name, cust-add,
(prod-no, prod-desc, unit-price, ord-qty, line-total)*, order-total

1. Remove the outermost repeating group (and any nested repeated

groups it may contain) and create a new relation to contain it.
ORDER-1
(rename (order-no,
original to indicateorder-date,
1NF) cust-no, cust-name, cust-add, order-total
(prod-no, prod-desc, unit-price, ord-qty, line-total)

2. Add to this relation a copy of the PK of the relation immediately enclosing it.
ORDER-1 (order-no, order-date, cust-no, cust-name, cust-add, order-total
(order-no, prod-no, prod-desc, unit-price, ord-qty, line-total)

3. Name the new entity (appending the number 1 to indicate 1NF)

ORDER-LINE-1 (order-no, prod-no, prod-desc, unit-price, ord-qty, line-total)

4. Determine the PK of the new entity

ORDER-LINE-1 (order-no, prod-no, prod-desc, unit-price, ord-qty, line-total)
Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe
Second Normal Form (2NF)

Definition: A relation is in 2NF if, and only if, it is in 1NF and

every non-key attribute is fully dependent on the primary key.

Remove partial functional dependencies into a new relation

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe

Steps from 1NF to 2NF:
 Remove the offending attributes that are only
partially functionally dependent on the composite
key, and place them in a new relation.
 Add to this relation a copy of the attribute(s) which
are the determinants of these offending attributes.
These will automatically become the primary key of
this new relation.
 Name the new entity (appending the number 2 to indicate
2NF)
 Rename the original entity (ending with a 2 to indicate
2NF)

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe

Example - 1NF to 2NF
ORDER-LINE-1 (order-no, prod-no, prod-desc, unit-price, ord-qty, line-total)
1. Remove the offending attributes that are only partially functionally dependent on the
composite key, and place them in a new relation.
ORDER-LINE-1 (order-no, prod-no, ord-qty, line-total)

(prod-desc, unit-price)
2. Add to this relation a copy of the attribute(s) which determines these offending
attributes. These will automatically become the primary key of this new relation..
ORDER-LINE-1 (order-no, prod-no, ord-qty, line-total)
(prod-no, prod-desc, unit-price)

3. Name the new entity (appending the number 2 to indicate 2NF)

PRODUCT-2 (prod-no, prod-desc, unit-price)

4. Rename the original entity (ending with a 2 to indicate 2NF)

ORDER-LINE-2 (order-no, prod-no, ord-qty, line-total)
Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe
Third Normal Form (3NF)

Definition: A relation is in 3NF if, and only if, it is in 2NF and

every non-key attribute is non-transitively dependent on the
primary key.

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe

Steps from 2NF to 3NF:
 Remove the offending attributes that are transitively dependent on
non-key attribute(s), and place them in a new relation.
 Add to this relation a copy of the attribute(s) which are the
determinants of these offending attributes. These will automatically
become the primary key of this new relation.
 Name the new entity (appending the number 3 to indicate 3NF)
 Rename the original entity (ending with a 3 to indicate 3NF)

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe

Example - 2NF to 3NF
ORDER-2 (order-no, order-date, cust-no, cust-name, cust-add, order-total

1. Remove the offending attributes that are transitively dependent on non-key attributes,
and place them in a new relation.
ORDER-2 (order-no, order-date, cust-no, order-total

(cust-name, cust-add )
2. Add to this relation a copy of the attribute(s) which determines these offending
attributes. These will automatically become the primary key of this new relation..
ORDER-2 (order-no, order-date, cust-no, order-total

(cust-no, cust-name, cust-add )

3. Name the new entity (appending the number 3 to indicate 3NF)
CUSTOMER-3 (cust-no, cust-name, cust-add )

4. Rename the original entity (ending with a 3 to indicate 3NF)

ORDER-3 (order-no, order-date, cust-no, order-total
Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe
Example - Relations in 3NF
ORDER-3 (order-no, order-date, cust-no, order-total

CUSTOMER-3 (cust-no, cust-name, cust-add )

PRODUCT-2 (prod-no, prod-desc, unit-price)

ORDER-LINE-2 (order-no, prod-no, ord-qty, line-total)

order-no prod-no
ORDER PRODUCT

shows
places placed by contains belongs to
cust-no order-no, prod-no
CUSTOMER
part of ORDER-LINE

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe

Reference
 Chapter # 14
 Fundamentals of database systems
 7th Edition

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 10- 89