I need to normalize a relation so that it is in the 1st normal form. I know how to normalize multi-valued attributes, it is just composite attributes that are giving me issues. For example, one of the composite attributes is 'Employee-Address', and as expected, it contains sub-attributes like 'House-Number', 'Street-Name' etc.
How do I normalize this? These composite attributes are not multivalued/complex i.e a single employee may only have 1 address. I also believe the 'employee-id' attribute can be used to identify all of sub-attributes of the address. Is it as simple as breaking up the composite attribute and storing each sub-attribute as its own attribute in the relation? This way all the sub-attributes would become simple, single and stored values?
Before anyone complains; this question is related to a college assignment and I've looked through the entirety of the recommended textbook(and the internet) for the answer, which I have not found. Of course, I'd like a solution to my answer, but if you'd rather give your own example that is great; any advice or pointers are much appreciated!
The only requirement of 1NF is that each attribute contain only a single "atomic" value.
If the question suggests that the address is a composite value and that each part of the address is a separate sub-value, then you should create an attribute for each sub-value.
You probably want to store each part of the address in its own attribute anyway, so you can index them and efficiently run queries like "find everyone in New York City."