Database Design and Relational Theory: Normal Forms and All That Jazz

© C. J. Date 2019

C. J. DateDatabase Design and Relational Theoryhttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-5540-7_17

17. We Need More Science

C. J. Date¹ 

(1)

Healdsburg, California, USA

 

What I tell you three times is true.

—Lewis Carroll:The Hunting of the Snark (1876)

What does it mean to say something’s redundant? It turns out, rather surprisingly—or perhaps it’s not so surprising, given all of the difficulties we’ve experienced in connection with the concept in prior chapters—to be quite difficult to come up with a precise answer to this question. The best Chambers Twentieth Century Dictionary (usually so good and pithy in its definitions) is able to come up with is the following:

• redundant copious: over-copious: superfluous

• However, Chambers Twentieth ...