normalization

Definitions

1. The process of organizing database tables to minimize redundancy and dependency, following a set of progressive rules called normal forms (1NF through 5NF). Normalization eliminates data anomalies — situations where inserting, updating, or deleting data produces inconsistent results. In practice, most production systems normalize to third normal form (3NF).

   In plain English: Organizing a database so each piece of information is stored in exactly one place, preventing the mess that happens when the same data is duplicated everywhere.

   Example: The customer's address was stored in 14 different tables, so when they moved, only 9 got updated — textbook case for why normalization matters.

Related Terms

• ORM
• Postgres
• foreign key
• denormalization
• sharding key
• SQL
• Isolation Level
• Partition Key
• Row-Level Security
• Transaction Log