5NF and Database Design

Author: Alexey Makhotkin [email protected], (~3900 words) One of the goals of this publication is to deconstruct the traditional ways of teaching basic topics in relational databases. Previously we discussed the fourth normal form (4NF): “Historically, 4NF explanations are needlessly confusing”. Let’s discuss the ultimate beast: fifth normal form (5NF). Often it’s presented even more confusingly than 4NF is, and we can show that this presentation is unnecessary, and the confusion is completely artificial.