Progress
Database Design
Guide


Normalization

This section provides an overview of normalization and the first three normal forms. Normalization is an iterative process during which you streamline your database to reduce redundancy and increase stability. During the normalization process you determine in which table a particular piece of data belongs based on the data itself—its meaning to your business and its relationship to other data. Your database design results in a data-driven, not processor application-driven design. This results in a database implementation that is more stable over time.

Normalization does not require you to have advanced database skills. It does require that you know your business and know the different ways you want to relate the data in your business. When you normalize your database, you eliminate columns that:

The following sections describe the rules for the first, second and third normal form


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