This process involves arranging data in a database with the aim of eliminating redundancy, defining relationships and eases the process of data manipulation (Stephens, 2009). The Huffman Trucking database is in the third normal form (3NF). Every table in the database has a primary key used to uniquely identify each row. There is no data in the database that is applicable to more than one row. These conditions fulfill the first normal form (1NF) and second normal form (2NF) requirements. The database’s attributes which are not key, are mutually independent.
Firstly the tables in the database all have primary keys to identify and differentiate each row of data. The primary key ensures that no columns are duplicated in the database. Secondly, all sets of data contained within another set are broken down into separate tables. The relationships between these new tables, the parent and child tables are defined using foreign keys. Finally the non-key entities in the tables are mutually independent.
For example: In the Driver table, the HomeTelephoneNumber and MobileTelephoneNumber columns would allow for null attributes if the driver has one telephone number. It would also require the whole structure of the table modified if they have more than two numbers. This is eliminated by moving these columns to a new table, as illustrated below.
This level of normalization is sufficient. It divides the large database into smaller tables, which eases the task data entry and update into the tables where static data is input only once, for example fields such as employee name and license number. This level eliminates redundant data which will save space used and reduce manipulation anomalies such as update anomaly (P. O’Neil & E. O’Neil, 2001).
References
O’Neil, P., & O’Neil, E. (2001). Database - - principles, programming, and performance (2nd ed.). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
Stephens, R. (2009). Beginning database design solutions. Indianapolis, IN: Wiley Publishing.
