First and Second Normal Forms
First normal form (1NF) tackles the obvious problem of cramming multiple values into single fields. Each cell should contain only one piece of information - no lists or comma-separated values allowed.
The student example shows this perfectly: instead of "Biology, Maths" in one subject field, we create separate rows for each subject. This might seem like we're creating more data, but it's actually making everything searchable and manageable.
Second normal form (2NF) goes further by creating separate tables for different types of information. Student details go in one table, whilst subjects get their own table linked by Student ID.
This separation eliminates massive amounts of data redundancy. Instead of repeating Adam's name, age, and address for every subject he takes, we store his personal details once and link them to his subjects.
Remember: Each normal form builds on the previous one - you can't skip steps in the normalisation process.