3NF (Third Normal Form)

Third Normal Form (3NF) is a way of organizing data in a database to reduce redundancy and improve data integrity. It ensures that each piece of information is stored only once, and that no non-essential data depends on other non-essential data. Essentially, a table is in 3NF if it already meets the rules of earlier normal forms, and all the data is directly related to the real-world entity it represents, without unnecessary dependencies. This leads to cleaner, more efficient data storage and easier maintenance.