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Database Normalization

1:33 with Andrew Chalkley and Kevin Nahm

Learn the process of database normalization, which is the process of eliminating redundant or repeating data in a database.

There are hundreds of sites that go into normalization to varying degrees.
Some of the ones we like are:

Wikipedia: Database Normalization
Study Tonight: Database Normalization
Essential SQL: Database Normalization

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    Database designers go through a great deal of planning to achieve optimal storage and

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    performance while generating the desired context for

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    the data stored in database tables.

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    Designing a relational database in this manner is called normalization.

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    During the process of normalization,

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    the database schema designer is thinking about the data that is important to

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    their business and how best to fit that in to tables.

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    They're looking for places where the data would repeat and what values depend on

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    one another so that they can group certain things together logically.

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    Take for instance this very simple spreadsheet.

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    Everything is lumped together in one large table or dataset.

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    It's easy for a human to read like this but as you add more rows and

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    columns, it would get more and more difficult to read and maintain.

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    Let's briefly look at it through the eyes of a database designer.

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    Upon first glance,

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    the database designer would probably notice there are three main data groups.

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    Customer, car and sale.

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    They would be broken apart into separate tables.

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    They might also notice within car there is a chance to have repeating makes.

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    So, they would make that separate as well.

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    This separation is called normalization.

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    As the normalization process comes to completion,

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    the designer will end up with a data model that might look something like this.

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    This is a crude representation of the normalization process.

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    We'll go into this into a little more detail in the next video.

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