First normal form: Difference between revisions

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A relation complies with first normal form when this is not the case, and no attribute ___domain has relations as elements. Codd calls a ___domain which contains relations a "[[finitary relation|nonsimple ___domain]]", or repeating group,{{r|Codd 1970 p380-381}} while a ___domain which does not contain relations is called a "simple ___domain". Normalization to 1NF is thus a process of eliminating nonsimple domains from all relations.
 
Codd uses the terms ''atomic'' and ''nondecomposable'' for elements of simple domains.{{r|Codd 1970 p380-381}} Thus, an atomic value is any value which is not a relation; atomic values cannot be decomposed using [[relational algebra]] operations like selection or projection. Precisely, Codd defines an atomic value as one that "cannot be decomposed into smaller pieces by the [[DBMS]] (excluding certain special functions)"<ref name="Codd 1990">Codd, E. F. ''The Relational Model for Database Management Version 2'' (Addison-Wesley, 1990)</ref>{{rp|page=6}} and states that "values in the domains on which each relation is defined are required to be atomic with respect to the DBMS,"{{r|Codd 1990}}{{Page needed|date=May 2025}} meaning a column should not be divided into parts with more than one kind of data such that what one part means to the DBMS depends on another part of the same column.{{Clarify|date=May 2025}}
 
==Examples==