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"Normalisation, Standard Notation - ICT 5"

Hi there, can anyone explain Normalisation, Standard Notation i.e. 1 Normal Form, 2nd NF, 3rd NF

Doing ICT 5 revison at the moment and it doesnt really make alot of sense, anyone help me out.

Hi there, can anyone explain Normalisation, Standard Notation i.e. 1 Normal Form, 2nd NF, 3rd NF

Doing ICT 5 revison at the moment and it doesnt really make alot of sense, anyone help me out.

If you have specific questions I might be able to help but I'm too hazy on it to explain the whole thing in general.

Try looking at the following lecture notes. It is a bit unclear exactly how far you need to gow with this, BCNF is a particular branck of normalisation. The whole process is a dark art and going any further that 3NF is unlikely to be necessary for most database applications. The whold subject can get very mathematical

Lecture notes at : http://www.cs.nott.ac.uk/~bai/DBS/lecture12.ppt

Hope this helps!

Thanks but still a bit confused.
I need:

What is:

1st NF

2nd NF

3rd NF

?????????????????????

An moderator of an unknown forum, how intriguing. I knew there was a secret plot in Freeola's work! This must go all the way to the top.

Basically NF is a means to design tables and data sets for use in relational databases. 1NF is a set of tests that are done on the dataset and if conditions are met then all is fine, if not then you split the data (create another table) and preform the 2NF tests and so on, hence unlikely to need any further than 3NF. It theory there are as many NF's as you like, BCNF (Boyce-Codd Normal Form) is simply named after the two guru's that came up with a particular set of tests and rules to break the datasets up.

It is very hard to describe this in this sort of forum and it is someting that would normally be done in a class or lecture with sample datasets and a big whiteboard.

Hope this perhaps helps a little more!