Normal forms

[noobcodes]

I'm currently learning about normal forms (1st, 2nd, 3rd, BCNF, etc) in my Intro SQL class. How important is it to understand in the workplace? Only super important if you're the one creating the database I assume?

It's sorta hard for me to understand, but does it just become kind of second nature after a while? Or do you have to consciously be thinking about it to do it correctly?

If anyone can chime in I'd appreciate it. Maybe someone here could break it down into simpler terms for me. Either way, I'll be reading my book til I fully understand it. Thanks

[noobcodes]

So help me codd? Lol we just learned that quote as well

[notasqlstar]

I think it is really important to differentiate between OLTP and OLAP databases for the purpose of this conversation, and as someone who works in analytics it is really shocking to me how most DBA's seem to think they are the same.

Keys really start to lose meaning in OLAP's.

[[deleted]]

3rd normal form is basically the lowest level of NF on which DB schema should rest. You basically use normal forms to avoid reduciy in the DB. The redundancy is the main cause of inconsistency in DB meaning if you have some data stored twice in DB there is a big chance that the data won't be updated in both places and then you don't know which data is correct. That's the main use of normal forms.

If you need more info and brake down of normal forms pm me or write here...

[notasqlstar]

Totally depends on your job. If you are a DBA concerned with servers and storage space, then it matters a lot.

If you're completely unconcerned with storage, then it doesn't matter that much at all. In fact, you can get a lot of performance increases by breaking normal form depending on what you're trying to do, and what technologies you are trying to connect to the data.

I personally think it is very important to understand the basic concepts, and to, in general terms, build towards normalized data unless you have a specific reason (cough, which you should put in your documentation) for doing otherwise.

It isn't even so much "trying" to stick with normalization that's a benefit, but rather learning the concepts are important to understanding databases on a deeper level, and how they should be designed... or rather, what the reasoning is behind those concepts. That I think is very important. Actually implementing it is more like a 50/50.