Normalizing the Data

This section contains the following topics:

Overview

Why Normalize Data?

Normal Forms of Data

How To Normalize Data

Normalized Data for the Commonweather Corporation

Overview

Goals of normalization

You can use normalization techniques to refine the entity-relationship model. Once you have determined the entities, relationships, and attributes of a database, you can use normalization procedures to ensure that each entity and relationship is designed in its simplest form. The goal of normalization is to develop entities that consist of a primary key, together with a set of attributes whose values are determined solely by the value of the primary key.

In many instances, you will find that the entities you developed earlier are already organized in easy-to-use structures. The entity-relationship approach often breaks entities down into normalized structures naturally. In those instances when data entities and relationships are fully normalized, the normalization process does not result in any changes to the design.