The normalization steps

The process of normalizing data is defined by a number of steps that you need to perform in order to get from a report or screenshot to a normalized table structure. Let's examine these steps in detail, starting with what is called Step zero.

Step zero

Data is normalized using information requirements such as reports and application screens in a number of formal steps. We will explain these steps using the report as shown in Figure 3.1. This report shows the hours worked by employees on different projects as of January 1, 2021. There are two active projects, P1 and P2. Two people, Peter and Janneke, are working on project P1. Peter, Jari, and Mats are working on project P2:

Figure 3.1 – Project overview

The first step is to define a list of columns to be stored in the database. You have to consider three main points in this preliminary step:

• Can the report be broken down into separate independent reports?
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