What does Boyce-Codd Normal Form Do?

Philip A. Bernstein, Nathan Goodman: What does Boyce-Codd Normal Form Do? VLDB 1980: 245-259

@inproceedings{DBLP:conf/vldb/BernsteinG80,
  author    = {Philip A. Bernstein and
               Nathan Goodman},
  title     = {What does Boyce-Codd Normal Form Do?},
  booktitle = {Sixth International Conference on Very Large Data Bases, October
               1-3, 1980, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Proceedings},
  publisher = {IEEE Computer Society},
  year      = {1980},
  pages     = {245-259},
  ee        = {db/conf/vldb/BernsteinG80.html},
  crossref  = {DBLP:conf/vldb/80},
  bibsource = {DBLP, http://dblp.uni-trier.de}
}

Abstract

Normalization research has concentrated on defining normal forms for database schemas and developing efficient algorithms for attaining these normal forms. It has never been proved that normal forms are good, i.e. that normal forms are beneficial to database users. This paper considers one of the earliest normal forms (Boyce Codd normal form [Cod2]) whose benefits are intuitively understood. We formalize these benefits and attempt to prove that the normal form attains them. Instead we prove the opposite: Boyce-Codd normal form fails to meet its goals except in trivial cases. This counterintuitive result is a consequence of the "universal relation assumption" upon which normalization theory rests. Normalization theory will remain an isolated theoretical area, divorced from database practice, until this assumption is circumvented.

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Sixth International Conference on Very Large Data Bases, October 1-3, 1980, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Proceedings. IEEE Computer Society 1980
Contents

References

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[AM]: ...
[Arm]: William Ward Armstrong: Dependency Structures of Data Base Relationships. IFIP Congress 1974: 580-583
[BBG]: Catriel Beeri, Philip A. Bernstein, Nathan Goodman: A Sophisticate's Introduction to Database Normalization Theory. VLDB 1978: 113-124
[BFH]: Catriel Beeri, Ronald Fagin, John H. Howard: A Complete Axiomatization for Functional and Multivalued Dependencies in Database Relations. SIGMOD Conference 1977: 47-61
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[BG]: ...
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[Cod2]: E. F. Codd: Recent Investigations in Relational Data Base Systems. IFIP Congress 1974: 1017-1021
[Date]: ...
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[DC]: ...
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[Fag2]: Ronald Fagin: Normal Forms and Relational Database Operators. SIGMOD Conference 1979: 153-160
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[Mar]: ...
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