3NF

Jun 28, 2023

BCNF requires that all nontrivial dependencies be of the form α → β, where α is a superkey.
3NF relaxes this constraint slightly by allowing certain nontrivial functional dependencies whose left side is not a superkey

• Definition
  • It first need to be in 2NF.
  • For all functional dependencies in F+ of the form α → β, at least one of the following holds:
    • α → β is a trivial functional dependency.
    • α is a superkey for R.
    • Each attribute A in β − α is contained in a candidate key for R. (Or , it should only depend on superkey)

• 3NF eliminate transitive dependency because if a non-prime attribute A depend on non-prime attribute B, since B depends on K it leads to (k -> B -> A)
• To check if a relation is 3NF, check every non-prime attribute and see if it only rely on superkey. If a non-prime attribute does not depend on superkey then it’s not 3NF.

1. 先求出 Canonical Cover Fc
2. 对于 Fc 里面的所有函数依赖 a->b,均转化为 Ri=ab
3. 对于所有的模式 Ri
   • 如果包含候选码，进行第 4
   • 如果都不包含候选码， 将任意一个候选码添加到模式 Ri 里面
4. 如果一个模式被另一个模式包含，则去掉此被包含的模式。

例子关系模式 r(A,B,C,D,E,F), 函数依赖 集 F： A->BCD,BC->DE,B->D,D->A

1. 函数依赖是：A->BC.B->DE,D->A
2. R1=ABC,R2=BDE,R3=DA,不包含候选码（AF,BF,DF）中任意一个，所以任意添加一个 R4=AF
3. 3NF 分解为{ABC,BDE,DA,AF}

1. 2NF is concerned with eliminating partial dependencies. This means that if a table has a composite primary key (consisting of multiple columns), no column should be dependent on just a part of the primary key. Every non-key attribute should be fully functionally dependent on the whole primary key.
2. 3NF goes a step further by eliminating transitive dependencies. This means that no non-key attribute should depend on another non-key attribute. Each non-key attribute must be directly dependent on the primary key and only on the primary key.