The Normal Forms

3NF and BCNF

BY
Jasbir Jassu
 Preview
 Normalization
 Solution: Normal Forms
 Introducing 3NF and BCNF
 3NF
 Examples
 BCNF
 Normalization
 Normalization is the process of efficiently
organizing data in a database with two
goals in mind
 First goal: eliminate redundant data
– for example, storing the same data in more
than one table
 Second Goal: ensure data dependencies
make sense
– for example, only storing related data in a
table
 Benefits of Normalization
 Less storage space
 Quicker updates
 Less data inconsistency
 Clearer data relationships
 Easier to add data
 Flexible Structure
 The Solution: Normal Forms
 Bad database designs results in:
– redundancy: inefficient storage.
– anomalies: data inconsistency, difficulties in
maintenance
 1NF, 2NF, 3NF, BCNF are some of the
early forms in the list that address this
problem
 Third Normal Form (3NF)
1) Meet all the requirements of the 1NF
2) Meet all the requirements of the 2NF
3) Remove columns that are not dependent
upon the primary key.
 1) First normal form -1NF

•1NF : if all attribute values are

atomic: no repeating group, no
composite attributes.

 The following table is not in 1NF

DPT_NO MG_NO EMP_NO EMP_NM
D101 12345 20000 Carl Sagan
20001 Mag James
20002 Larry Bird

D102 13456 30000 Jim Carter

30001 Paul Simon
 Table in 1NF
DPT_NO MG_NO EMP_NO EMP_NM
D101 12345 20000 Carl Sagan

D101 12345 20001 Mag James

D101 12345 20002 Larry Bird

D102 13456 30000 Jim Carter

D102 13456 Paul Simon

30001

 all attribute values are atomic because there are no repeating

group and no composite attributes.
 2) Second Normal Form
– Second normal form (2NF) further addresses the
concept of removing duplicative data:

 A relation R is in 2NF if
– (a) R is 1NF , and
– (b) all non-prime attributes are fully dependent
on the candidate keys. Which is creating
relationships between these new tables and
their predecessors through the use of foreign
keys.
 A prime attribute appears in a candidate key.
 There is no partial dependency in 2NF.

Example is next…
 No dependencies on non-key attributes

Inventory

Description Supplier Cost Supplier Address

There are two non-key fields.  So, here are the questions:

•If I know just Description, can I find out Cost?  No, because
we have more than one supplier for the same product.

•If I know just Supplier, and I find out Cost?  No, because I
need to know what the Item is as well.

Therefore, Cost is fully, functionally dependent upon the

ENTIRE PK (Description-Supplier) for its existence.

Inventory
Description Supplier Cost
 CONTINUED…
Inventory
Description Supplier Cost Supplier Address

•If I know just Description, can I find out Supplier Address?  No,
because we have more than one supplier for the same product.

•If I know just Supplier, and I find out Supplier Address?  Yes. 
The Address does not depend upon the description of the item.

Therefore, Supplier Address is NOT functionally dependent upon

the ENTIRE PK (Description-Supplier)
for its existence.

Supplier
Name Supplier Address
 So putting things together
Inventory
Description Supplier Cost Supplier Address

Inventory
Description Supplier Cost

Supplier
Name Supplier Address

The above relation is now in 2NF since the relation has no non-

key attributes.
3) Remove columns that are not
dependent upon the primary key.
So for every nontrivial functional dependency X --> A,
(1) X is a superkey, or
(2) A is a prime (key) attribute.
 Example of 3NF
Books
Author's Non-de
Name Author's Name # of Pages
Plume

•If I know # of Pages, can I find out Author's Name?  No.  Can I find out
Author's Non-de Plume?  No.
•If I know Author's Name, can I find out # of Pages?  No.  Can I find out
Author's Non-de Plume?  YES.

Therefore, Author's Non-de Plume is functionally dependent upon Author's

Name, not the PK for its existence.  It has to go.

Books

Name Author's Name # of Pages

Author
Name Non-de Plume
 Another example: Suppose we have relation S
 S(SUPP#, PART#, SNAME, QUANTITY) with the following assumptions:

 (1) SUPP# is unique for every supplier.

(2) SNAME is unique for every supplier.
(3) QUANTITY is the accumulated quantities of a part supplied by a
supplier.
(4) A supplier can supply more than one part.
(5) A part can be supplied by more than one supplier.

 We can find the following nontrivial functional dependencies:

 (1) SUPP# --> SNAME

(2) SNAME --> SUPP#
(3) SUPP# PART# --> QUANTITY
(4) SNAME PART# --> QUANTITY

 The candidate keys are:

 (1) SUPP# PART#
(2) SNAME PART#

 The relation is in 3NF.

 The table in 3NF

SUPP# SNAME PART# QTY

S1 P1
Yues
100

S1 Yues P2 200

S2 Yues P3 250

S2 Jones P1 300
 Example with first three forms
Suppose we have this Invoice Table

First Normal Form: No repeating groups.

•The above table violates 1NF because it has columns
for the first, second, and third line item.

•Solution: you make a separate line item table, with

it's own key, in this case the combination of invoice
number and line number
Table now in 1NF
Second Normal Form:
Each column must depend on the *entire* primary key.
Third Normal Form:

Each column must depend on *directly* on the primary key.

 Boyce-Codd Normal Form (BCNF)
Boyce-Codd normal form (BCNF)
A relation is in BCNF, if and only if, every determinant is a
candidate key.

The difference between 3NF and BCNF is that for a functional

dependency A  B, 3NF allows this dependency in a relation
if B is a primary-key attribute and A is not a candidate key,

whereas BCNF insists that for this dependency to remain in a

relation, A must be a candidate key.
 ClientInterview
ClientNo interviewDate interviewTime staffNo roomNo
CR76 13-May-02 10.30 SG5 G101

CR76 13-May-02 12.00 SG5 G101

CR74 13-May-02 12.00 SG37 G102

CR56 1-Jul-02 10.30 SG5 G102

 FD1 clientNo, interviewDate  interviewTime, staffNo, roomNo (Primary Key)

 FD2 staffNo, interviewDate, interviewTime clientNo (Candidate key)

 FD3 roomNo, interviewDate, interviewTime  clientNo, staffNo (Candidate key)

 FD4 staffNo, interviewDate  roomNo (not a candidate key)

 As a consequece the ClientInterview relation may suffer from update anmalies.

 For example, two tuples have to be updated if the roomNo need be changed for
staffNo SG5 on the 13-May-02.
 Example of BCNF(2)
To transform the ClientInterview relation to BCNF, we must remove
the violating functional dependency by creating two new relations
called Interview and StaffRoom as shown below,

Interview (clientNo, interviewDate, interviewTime, staffNo)

StaffRoom(staffNo, interviewDate, roomNo)
Interview
ClientNo interviewDate interviewTime staffNo
CR76 13-May-02 10.30 SG5
CR76 13-May-02 12.00 SG5
CR74 13-May-02 12.00 SG37
CR56 1-Jul-02 10.30 SG5

StaffRoom
staffNo interviewDate roomNo
SG5 13-May-02 G101
SG37 13-May-02 G102
SG5 1-Jul-02 G102

BCNF Interview and StaffRoom relations

Another BCNF Example

Example taken from Dr. Lee’s 2004 lecture notes

 Sources:
 http://www.troubleshooters.com/littstip/ltnorm.html
 http://www.cs.jcu.edu.au/Subjects/cp1500/1998/Lecture
_Notes/normalisation/3nf.html
 Dr. Lee’s Fall 2004 lecture notes