Objective: State the requirements for 1NF and 2NF and apply them to two relations.
Consider two alternative designs for a cat register. Each row describes one cat at the current time. In both designs, CatID is the only candidate key. Each cell contains one value from its declared domain, there are no repeating groups, and no non-key attribute is constant across all permitted rows. Names, owners, and veterinary addresses may be shared by different cats.
Cat(CatID, Name, Birthdate, Fur, Eyes, Sex, OwnerID)
Cat(CatID, Name, Birthdate, Fur, Eyes, Sex, OwnerID, VetAddress)In the second design, VetAddress is the address of that cat's one currently designated veterinary contact. Multiple addresses are not stored in one cell. An address is treated as a single value for this application.
VetAddress creates a partial dependency.Normal forms are cumulative: a relation in 2NF is also in 1NF. Do not assume the two designs must belong to different normal forms.
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