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Normal Forms and Normalization

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Encyclopedia of Database Systems

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Definition

A normal form defines a condition over a set of data dependencies, or semantic constraints, that has been specified as part of a database schema. This condition is used to check whether the design of the database has some desirable properties (for example, the database does not store redundant information), and if this is not the case, then it can also be used to convert the poorly designed database into an equivalent well-designed one.

Historical Background

Information is one of the most – if not the most – valuable assets of a company. Therefore, organizations need tools to allow them to structure, query and analyze their data, and, in particular, they need tools providing simple and fast access to their information.

During the last 30 years, relational databases have become the most popular computer application for storing and analyzing information. The simplicity and elegance of the relational model, where information is stored just as tables, has largely contributed to...

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Recommended Reading

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, Santiago, Chile

    Marcelo Arenas

Authors
  1. Marcelo Arenas
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. College of Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology, 266 Ferst Drive, 30332-0765, Atlanta, GA, USA

    LING LIU (Professor) (Professor)

  2. Database Research Group David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, N2L 3G1, Waterloo, ON, Canada

    M. TAMER ÖZSU (Professor and Director, University Research Chair) (Professor and Director, University Research Chair)

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© 2009 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

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Arenas, M. (2009). Normal Forms and Normalization. In: LIU, L., ÖZSU, M.T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Database Systems. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-39940-9_1237

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