By: Prof. Dr. Fazal Rehman | Last updated: February 13, 2024
Data Redundancy
Data Inconsistency
When Same data located in multiple places in the database table, then the data is called redundant data.
Data Inconsistency is a condition that occurs when data redundancy occurs.
To minimize the Data Redundancy, we need to normalize the database tables
To minimize Data Inconsistency, we need to use constraints on the database
Disadvantages of Data Redundancy
Data redundancy makes data retrieving less efficient due to occurring inconsistencies and increasing load on hardware due to irrelevant increase of data in tables.
Data redundancy consumes more resources in the database.
In some cases at beginning and more likely from time to time when database table size increase with a huge amount of data, then data redundancy makes database corrupted and corrupted data can cause the data to be unusable.
Problem of Data Redundancy
Example of Data redundancy
Student_ID
Student_Name
Teacher_id
Teacher_Name
1
Irum
1
Shehla
2
Sajid
2
Kiran
3
Javed
1
Shehla
The student 1 and 3 are learning from teacher Shehla, and student 2 is learning from teacher Kiran. Here, the Teacher_id and Teacher_name repeats two times.
Solution of Data Redundancy
Teacher_id and teacher name can be stored into a separate table. New student table and the teacher table are as follows.
Student_ID
Student_Name
Teacher_id
1
Irum
1
2
Sajid
2
3
Javed
1
Teacher_id
Teacher_Name
1
Shehla
2
Kiran
Data Inconsistency
Suppose we want to Change the Teacher_Name from Shehla to Shehla khan. Mistaken we don’t change it on all rows, Only one record will have correct data while the others will have false data. Hence, this condition is data inconsistency.
Example of Data Inconsistency Elimination
Problem of Data Inconsistency
Student_ID
Student_Name
Teacher_id
Teacher_Name
1
Irum
1
Shehla
3
Javed
1
Shehla
Student_ID
Student_Name
Teacher_id
Teacher_Name
1
Irum
1
Shehla Khan
3
Javed
1
Shehla
Solution of Data Inconsistency
Teacher_id and teacher name can be stored into a separate table. New student table and the teacher table are as follows.