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Elementary key normal form

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Thai Pangsakulyanont (talk | contribs) at 13:53, 16 November 2013 (Added a link to the section of the BCNF page that provides a nice example of a table that can be EKNF, but can't be BCNF.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Elementary Key Normal Form (EKNF) is a subtle enhancement on 3NF. By definition, EKNF tables are also in third normal form (3NF). This happens when there is more than one unique composite key and they overlap. Such cases can cause redundant information in the overlapping column(s).

A table is in Elementary Key Normal Form (EKNF), if and only if, all its elementary functional dependencies begin at whole keys or end at elementary key attributes.

For every full nontrivial functional dependency of the form X→Y, either X is a key or Y is (part of) an elementary key.

Example

See also

Notes and references

  • Joe Celko’s SQL for Smarties: Advanced SQL Programming, Third Edition
  • A New Normal Form for the Design of Relational Database Schemata by CARLO ZANIOLO - Sperry Research Center[1]
  • Information Modeling and Relational Databases By T. A. Halpin, Antony J. Morgan, Tony Morgan