Normalization? What must I do?

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Sindarin
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Normalization? What must I do?

Post by Sindarin »

Since I've gotten into mySQL, some people told me that I should read about normalization, in order to avoid future maintenance errors in the database. The problem is I don't clearly understand what exactly I should do on my end to ensure the integrity of my database? Add multiple checks in submission forms before data gets into the database? Organise the data in many separate tables? Install maintenance software?
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VladSun
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Re: Normalization? What must I do?

Post by VladSun »

There are 10 types of people in this world, those who understand binary and those who don't
bdlang
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Re: Normalization? What must I do?

Post by bdlang »

There's also a good article on MySQL's site:
http://dev.mysql.com/tech-resources/articles/intro-to-normalization.html


To answer your questions in a nutshell: yes (but this has nothing to do with normalization), probably, not necessary.
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califdon
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Re: Normalization? What must I do?

Post by califdon »

Normalization has nothing whatsoever to do with the data that is entered, it is concerned with what fields are created in a table, which is a one-time job (but very important). You seem to be describing data validation.

Anyway, the clearest article I've read on normalization is at http://www.phlonx.com/resources/nf3/.
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Chris Corbyn
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Re: Normalization? What must I do?

Post by Chris Corbyn »

califdon wrote:Normalization has nothing whatsoever to do with the data that is entered, it is concerned with what fields are created in a table, which is a one-time job (but very important). You seem to be describing data validation.

Anyway, the clearest article I've read on normalization is at http://www.phlonx.com/resources/nf3/.
That is a good article :) You may wish to post in our Useful Resources sticky at the top of this Databases board ;)
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