Virtual 6NF
15 days ago
- #database-modeling
- #minimal-modeling
- #6NF
- Sixth Normal Form (6NF) is often considered exotic or academic, but any database can be represented in 6NF or 4NF virtually.
- Virtual 6NF decomposition allows analyzing any database schema, including 3NF, EAV, JSON columns, NoSQL databases, and multi-database setups.
- Minimal Modeling represents databases using anchors (IDs), attributes (ID + value), links (ID pairs), and secondary data (derived from primary data).
- Anchors correspond to entities (e.g., users, orders) and are represented as single-column ID queries.
- Attributes store data about anchors (e.g., user names, payment amounts) and require clean, non-NULL values.
- Links connect two anchors (e.g., user likes post) and are represented as two-column ID pairs.
- Virtual 6NF decomposition can aid documentation, materialized views, database refactoring, and data catalog creation.
- Future topics include decomposing secondary data, temporal 6NF, and physical 6NF design strategies.