Visual Basic® .NET Database Programming

Normalization

At this point, you could build CustomerOrders, OrderItems, and Inventory tables in a relational database and you could probably make the application run. Before you do that, there are several steps you can take to increase the database’s flexibility and to remove redundant data. This process is called normalization. There are several different levels of normalization that provide different benefits. The following sections describe first, second, and third level normalization.

First Normal Form

In first normal form (1NF), the database entities do not contain fields representing the same kind of data. In Figure 2.3, the CustomerOrders entity contains a couple of fields that have the same data type. The BillingAddress and ShippingAddress ...