The Boyce-Codd-Heath normal form for SQL

Abstract

In the relational model of data the Boyce-Codd-Heath normal form, commonly just known as Boyce-Codd normal form, guarantees the elimination of data redundancy in terms of functional dependencies. For efficient means of data processing the industry standard SQL permits partial data and duplicate rows of data to occur in database systems. Consequently, the combined class of uniqueness constraints and functional dependencies is more expressive than the class of functional dependencies itself. Hence, the Boyce-Codd-Heath normal form is not suitable for SQL databases. We characterize the associated implication problem of the combined class in the presence of NOT NULL constraints axiomatically, algorithmically and logically. Based on these results we are able to establish a suitable normal form for SQL.