Tutorial : The 3 Normal Forms

The 3 Normal Forms: A Tutorial by Fred Coulson Copyright © Fred Coulson 2007 (last revised February 1, 2009) This tutorial may be freely copied and distributed, providing appropriate attribution to the author is given. Inquiries may be directed to http://phlonx.com/contact Downloaded from http://phlonx.com/resources/nf3/ Table of Contents Table of Contents TABLE OF CONTENTS .......................................................................................1 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................2 THE PROBLEM: KEEPING TRACK OF A STACK OF INVOICES .................................................3 FIRST NORMAL FORM: NO REPEATING ELEMENTS OR GROUPS OF ELEMENTS.............................5 SECOND NORMAL FORM: NO PARTIAL DEPENDENCIES ON A CONCATENATED KEY..........................8 SECOND NORMAL FORM: PHASE II ............................................................................................................12 THIRD NORMAL FORM: NO DEPENDENCIES ON NON-KEY ATTRIBUTES..........................................15 REFERENCES FOR FURTHER READING .......................................................18 3 Normal Forms Tutorial http://phlonx.com/resources/nf3/ 1Introduction Introduction This is meant to be a very brief tutorial aimed at beginners who want to get a conceptual grasp on the database normalization process. I find it very ...