Third Normal form (3NF) A table design is said to be in 3NF if both the following conditions hold: Table must be in 2NF Transitive functional dependency of non-prime attribute on any super key should be removed. An attribute that is not part of any candidate key is known as non-prime attribute. In other words 3NF can be explained like this: A table is in 3NF if it is in 2NF and for each functional dependency X-> Y at least one of the following conditions hold: X is a super key of table Y is a prime attribute of table An attribute that is a part of one of the candidate keys is known as prime attribute. Example: Suppose a company wants to store the complete address of each employee, they create a table named employee_details that looks like this: emp_id emp_name emp_zip emp_state emp_city emp_district 1001 John 282005 UP Agra Dayal Bagh 1002 Ajeet 222008 TN Chennai M-City 1006 Lora 282007 TN Chennai Urrapakkam 1101 Lilly 292008 UK Pauri Bhagwan 1201 Steve 222999 MP Gwalior Ratan Super keys: {emp_id}, {emp_id, emp_name}, {emp_id, emp_name, emp_zip}…so on Candidate Keys: {emp_id} Non-prime attributes: all attributes except emp_id are non-prime as they are not part of any candidate keys. Here, emp_state, emp_city & emp_district dependent on emp_zip. And, emp_zip is dependent on emp_id that makes non-prime attributes (emp_state, emp_city & emp_district) transitively dependent on super key (emp_id). This violates the rule of 3NF. To make this table complies with 3NF we have to break the table into two tables to remove the transitive dependency: employee table: emp_id emp_name emp_zip 1001 John 282005 1002 Ajeet 222008 1006 Lora 282007 1101 Lilly 292008 1201 Steve 222999 employee_zip table: emp_zip emp_state emp_city emp_district 282005 UP Agra Dayal Bagh 222008 TN Chennai M-City 282007 TN Chennai Urrapakkam 292008 UK Pauri Bhagwan 222999 MP Gwalior Ratan Boyce Codd normal form (BCNF) It is an advance version of 3NF that’s why it is also referred as 3.5NF. BCNF is stricter than 3NF. A table complies with BCNF if it is in 3NF and for every functional dependency X->Y, X should be the super key of the table. Example: Suppose there is a company wherein employees work in more than one department. They store the data like this: emp_id emp_nationality emp_dept dept_type dept_no_of_emp 1001 Austrian Production and planning D001 200 1001 Austrian stores D001 250 1002 American design and technical support D134 100 1002 American Purchasing department D134 600 Functional dependencies in the table above: emp_id -> emp_nationality emp_dept -> {dept_type, dept_no_of_emp} Candidate key: {emp_id, emp_dept} The table is not in BCNF as neither emp_id nor emp_dept alone are keys. To make the table comply with BCNF we can break the table in three tables like this: emp_nationality table: emp_id emp_nationality 1001 Austrian 1002 American emp_dept table: emp_dept dept_type dept_no_of_emp Production and planning D001 200 stores D001 250 design and technical support D134 100 Purchasing department D134 600 emp_dept_mapping table: emp_id emp_dept 1001 Production and planning 1001 stores 1002 design and technical support 1002 Purchasing department Functional dependencies: emp_id -> emp_nationality emp_dept -> {dept_type, dept_no_of_emp} Candidate keys: For first table: emp_id For second table: emp_dept For third table: {emp_id, emp_dept} This is now in BCNF as in both the functional dependencies left side part is a key.