Functional Dependency
The functional dependency is a relationship that exists between two attributes. It typically exists between the
primary key and non-key attribute within a table.
X → Y
The left side of FD is known as a determinant, the right side of the production is known as a dependent.
For example:
Assume we have an employee table with attributes: Emp_Id, Emp_Name, Emp_Address.
Here Emp_Id attribute can uniquely identify the Emp_Name attribute of employee table because if we know
the Emp_Id, we can tell that employee name associated with it.
Functional dependency can be written as:
Emp_Id → Emp_Name
We can say that Emp_Name is functionally dependent on Emp_Id.
Types of Functional dependency
DBMS Functional Dependency
1. Trivial functional dependency
A → B has trivial functional dependency if B is a subset of A.
The following dependencies are also trivial like: A → A, B → B
Example:
Consider a table with two columns Employee_Id and Employee_Name.
{Employee_id, Employee_Name} → Employee_Id is a trivial functional dependency as
Employee_Id is a subset of {Employee_Id, Employee_Name}.
Also, Employee_Id → Employee_Id and Employee_Name → Employee_Name are trivial dependencies too.
2. Non-trivial functional dependency
A → B has a non-trivial functional dependency if B is not a subset of A.
When A intersection B is NULL, then A → B is called as complete non-trivial.
Example:
ID → Name,
Name → DOB
Normalization
Normalization is the process of organizing the data in the database.
Normalization is used to minimize the redundancy from a relation or set of relations. It is also used to
eliminate the undesirable characteristics like Insertion, Update and Deletion Anomalies.
Normalization divides the larger table into the smaller table and links them using relationship.
The normal form is used to reduce redundancy from the database table.
Types of Normal Forms
There are the four types of normal forms:
Normal Form Description
1NF A relation is in 1NF if it contains an atomic value.
2NF A relation will be in 2NF if it is in 1NF and all non-key attributes are fully functional dependent on the
primary key.
3NF A relation will be in 3NF if it is in 2NF and no transition dependency exists.
4NF A relation will be in 4NF if it is in Boyce Codd normal form and has no multi-valued dependency.
5NF A relation is in 5NF if it is in 4NF and not contains any join dependency and joining should be lossless.
First Normal Form (1NF)
A relation will be 1NF if it contains an atomic value.
It states that an attribute of a table cannot hold multiple values. It must hold only single-valued attribute.
First normal form disallows the multi-valued attribute, composite attribute, and their combinations.
Example: Relation EMPLOYEE is not in 1NF because of multi-valued attribute EMP_PHONE.
EMPLOYEE table:
EMP_IDEMP_NAME EMP_PHONE EMP_STATE
14 John 7272826385,
9064738238 UP
20 Harry 8574783832 Bihar
12 Sam 7390372389,
8589830302 Punjab
The decomposition of the EMPLOYEE table into 1NF has been shown below:
EMP_IDEMP_NAME EMP_PHONE EMP_STATE
14 John 7272826385 UP
14 John 9064738238 UP
20 Harry 8574783832 Bihar
12 Sam 7390372389 Punjab
12 Sam 8589830302
Second Normal Form (2NF)
In the 2NF, relational must be in 1NF.
In the second normal form, all non-key attributes are fully functional dependent on the primary key
Example: Let's assume, a school can store the data of teachers and the subjects they teach. In a school, a
teacher can teach more than one subject.
TEACHER table
TEACHER_ID SUBJECT TEACHER_AGE
25 Chemistry 30
25 Biology 30
47 English 35
83 Math 38
83 Computer 38
In the given table, non-prime attribute TEACHER_AGE is dependent on TEACHER_ID which is a proper subset
of a candidate key. That's why it violates the rule for 2NF.
To convert the given table into 2NF, we decompose it into two tables:
TEACHER_DETAIL table:
TEACHER_ID TEACHER_AGE
25 30
47 35
83 38
TEACHER_SUBJECT table:
TEACHER_ID SUBJECT
25 Chemistry
25 Biology
47 English
83 Math
83 Computer
Third Normal Form (3NF)
A relation will be in 3NF if it is in 2NF and not contain any transitive partial dependency.
3NF is used to reduce the data duplication. It is also used to achieve the data integrity.
If there is no transitive dependency for non-prime attributes, then the relation must be in third normal form.
A relation is in third normal form if it holds atleast one of the following conditions for every non-trivial
function dependency X → Y.
X is a super key.
Y is a prime attribute, i.e., each element of Y is part of some candidate key.
Example:
EMPLOYEE_DETAIL table:
EMP_IDEMP_NAME EMP_ZIP EMP_STATE EMP_CITY
222 Harry 201010 UP Noida
333 Stephan 02228 US Boston
444 Lan 60007 US Chicago
555 Katharine 06389 UK Norwich
666 John 462007 MP Bhopal
Super key in the table above:
{EMP_ID}, {EMP_ID, EMP_NAME}, {EMP_ID, EMP_NAME, EMP_ZIP}....so on
Candidate key: {EMP_ID}
Non-prime attributes: In the given table, all attributes except EMP_ID are non-prime.
Here, EMP_STATE & EMP_CITY dependent on EMP_ZIP and EMP_ZIP dependent on EMP_ID. The non-prime
attributes (EMP_STATE, EMP_CITY) transitively dependent on super key(EMP_ID). It violates the rule of third
normal form.
That's why we need to move the EMP_CITY and EMP_STATE to the new <EMPLOYEE_ZIP> table, with
EMP_ZIP as a Primary key.
EMPLOYEE table:
EMP_IDEMP_NAME EMP_ZIP
222 Harry 201010
333 Stephan 02228
444 Lan 60007
555 Katharine 06389
666 John 462007
EMPLOYEE_ZIP table:
EMP_ZIP EMP_STATE EMP_CITY
201010 UP Noida
02228 US Boston
60007 US Chicago
06389 UK Norwich
462007 MP Bhopal
Boyce Codd normal form (BCNF)
BCNF is the advance version of 3NF. It is stricter than 3NF.
A table is in BCNF if every functional dependency X → Y, X is the super key of the table.
For BCNF, the table should be in 3NF, and for every FD, LHS is super key.
Example: Let's assume there is a company where employees work in more than one department.
EMPLOYEE table:
EMP_IDEMP_COUNTRY EMP_DEPT DEPT_TYPE EMP_DEPT_NO
264 India Designing D394 283
264 India Testing D394 300
364 UK Stores D283 232
364 UK Developing D283 549
In the above table Functional dependencies are as follows:
EMP_ID → EMP_COUNTRY
EMP_DEPT → {DEPT_TYPE, EMP_DEPT_NO}
Candidate key: {EMP-ID, EMP-DEPT}
The table is not in BCNF because neither EMP_DEPT nor EMP_ID alone are keys.
To convert the given table into BCNF, we decompose it into three tables:
EMP_COUNTRY table:
EMP_IDEMP_COUNTRY
264 India
264 India
EMP_DEPT table:
EMP_DEPT DEPT_TYPE EMP_DEPT_NO
Designing D394 283
Testing D394 300
Stores D283 232
Developing D283 549
EMP_DEPT_MAPPING table:
EMP_IDEMP_DEPT
D394 283
D394 300
D283 232
D283 549
Functional dependencies:
EMP_ID → EMP_COUNTRY
EMP_DEPT → {DEPT_TYPE, EMP_DEPT_NO}
Candidate keys:
For the first table: EMP_ID
For the second table: EMP_DEPT
For the third table: {EMP_ID, EMP_DEPT}
Now, this is in BCNF because left side part of both the functional dependencies is a key.
