Which normalization form prevents data changes in one field from affecting others?

The third normal form (3NF) is designed to prevent data anomalies that can arise from updating, deleting, or inserting information in a relational database. This normalization form ensures that all the attributes in a relational table are functionally dependent only on the primary key and that they are not dependent on any other non-prime attributes. By enforcing this, 3NF minimizes the chances that changes to one piece of data will inadvertently alter or create inconsistencies in other fields.

For example, in a database that keeps track of students and their classes, if a student record includes both the student’s name and the name of their advisor, modifying the advisor's name would require changes to multiple rows if the same advisor is linked to several students. However, if the database is in 3NF, the advisor's information is stored in a separate table, reducing redundancy and keeping the data properly isolated. This means that a change in one table will not affect related but distinct data in another, preserving data integrity and consistency.

When considering what 3NF achieves compared to the other normalization forms, it is evident that 1NF and 2NF focus on eliminating repeating groups and partial dependencies, respectively, but do not entirely eliminate transitive dependencies that can lead to undesirable