First Normal Form (1NF)

Normalization is the process organizing the data in database. It is the process of successive reduction of a given set of tables to a better form. Let’s start with first normal form.

A database is said to be in first normal form if does not contain any repeating columns or repeating groups of columns.

A table is said to be in first normal form, if it satisfies following conditions:

  • All data values in a column are atomic.
  • There are not repeating groups.
  • Each column or field has unique name.

Let’s take an example of Student table. The table contains information about student hobbies.

Table Student before first normal form
IT_Officer_006_01

You can see there are many values in Hobby column separated by commas. Thus value in Hobby column is not atomic. As per first normal form (1NF), the value in Hobby column should be atomic in nature.

Table Student after first normal form
IT_Officer_006_02

 

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Read next:  Second Normal Form (2NF) ››

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