Normalization

Normalisationis a process which we analyze and alter a database relation in order to get more concise and organized data structures. Normalised data is stable and has a natural structure. We call a relation normalized if:

• it does not contain any redundancy
• it does not cause maintenance problems
• it is an accurate representation of the data

Relations that aren't normalised contain non-atomic attributes and therefore can contain redundant information. Detailed planning of the ERM can help creating normalised relations. The following steps will explain how existing relations can be normalised step by step.