i need a free software that can normalize tables and shows the steps it takes.
52 Answers
CASE tools of that kind used to be pretty common but are less common today. If you define a set of attributes and dependencies then it isn't difficult to write code to put them into a given Normal Form - the algorithms to do it are well known and straightforward.
However, for most practical purposes such tools are of limited value. Most of the analysis effort needs to be put into identifying the right attributes and desired dependencies in the first place. So actually normalizing them is a fairly simple part of the design process.
Seeing as database normalization requires good analysis skills, understanding the problem domain and being able to decide when to stop normalizing (seeing as there is a trade-off between speed and space savings), you are unlikely find a piece of software that will automatically normalize a database.
