Describe the purpose of normalizing data.

What will be an ideal response?

The purpose of normalization is to identify a suitable set of relations that support the data
requirements of an enterprise. The characteristics of a suitable set of relations include the
following:
? the minimal number of attributes necessary to support the data requirements of the enterprise;
? attributes with a close logical relationship (described as functional dependency) are found in
the same relation;
? minimal redundancy with each attribute represented only once with the important exception of
attributes that form all or part of foreign keys, which are essential for the
joining of related relations.
The benefit of using a database that has a suitable set of relations is that the database will be
easier for the user to access and maintain the data, and take up minimal storage space on the
computer.