Database normalization is a process of organizing fields and tables which reduces dependancy of data and redundancy.
There are 6 normal form. In most cases it’s only need 3 normal form to achieve normalization.
What normal forms are?
1NF (First Normal Form) Rules
- Each table cell should contain a single value
- Each record needs to be unique.
2NF (Second Normal Form) Rules
- Be in 1NF
- Single Column Primary Key
3NF (Third Normal Form) Rules
- Be in 2NF
- Has no transitive functional dependencies
Offcourse, there are pros and cons of using normalization.
Advantages of normalizing database are:
- No duplicate entries
- Saves storage space
- Boasts the query performances.
Disantavtages:
- More complicated queries because joins are required