> Among other criteria, it mentions that in first order normalization "No repeating groups of data are allowed". It then gives a table with 3 rows of data, and shows that one of the columns (company name) has the same entry in two of the rows. It says "this table is not in 1st normal form". For the correct way of doing it, it shows the same table, with that column changed to (company name id) and links it to another table that has two columns, company name id, and company id.
Right. The main reasons for doing this are to minimize data storage space (the number '1' takes far less space to store than the string 'Foo Company'), ensure data integrity (make sure you don't have entries such as 'Foo Company' and 'foo company'), and to speed queries (matching integers can be performed by the sql server MUCH qiucker than matching strings). Hope this helps, Ryan Fox --------------------------------------------------------------------- Before posting, please check: http://www.mysql.com/manual.php (the manual) http://lists.mysql.com/ (the list archive) To request this thread, e-mail <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, e-mail <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Trouble unsubscribing? Try: http://lists.mysql.com/php/unsubscribe.php
