Introduction

In the previous two chapters, we looked at different aspects of a database. We provided an overview of the points to be considered while setting up a database. One of the key aspects we focused on was data integrity. We now know why data consistency is important. A step toward achieving better data integrity is database normalization. In this chapter, we will take a detailed look at achieving data consistency through normalization.

In the previous two chapters, we learned about the relational model of data. We saw that a database can contain any number of tables. These tables are connected to each other using a relation. This relation is usually established between the selected columns across tables using something called a foreign key.

Understanding that the relational model and data integrity are critical when working with data in business, we will take a look at the concept of normalization. Setting up the data model with constraints in mind and optimizing data...