Understanding Normalization in a University Course Registration Database

Normalization is really important for keeping data accurate in a university course registration system. Let's break down the key steps to make it easier to understand:

1. Identify Important Parts:

   • The main parts we care about are Students, Courses, Instructors, and Enrollments (which means signing up for courses).
   • For Students, things like Student_ID, Name, Email, and Major are important pieces of information.

2. First Normal Form (1NF):

   • Every table needs a primary key, which helps us identify each row uniquely.
   • Also, make sure each column has simple values. For example, in the Enrollments table, if a student is enrolled in multiple courses, we should list each course in a separate row.

3. Second Normal Form (2NF):

   • We need to remove any partial dependencies. This means that every piece of information must rely on the whole primary key.
   • If Course_ID and Student_ID together form a key in the Enrollments table, then details like Course_Name should be moved to the Courses table instead.

4. Third Normal Form (3NF):

   • This step is about removing transitive dependencies. This means non-key information shouldn't depend on other non-key information.
   • For instance, the details about Instructors should be kept in a separate Instructors table.

5. Boyce-Codd Normal Form (BCNF):

   • This is a stricter version of 3NF. Here, all relationships must depend on superkeys, which are special kinds of keys.
   • This is especially helpful if some unique course sections are taught by different instructors.

By following these steps, the database becomes more efficient. It helps minimize duplicate data and makes managing course registrations much easier!