Ikkenøkkelattributter

An "ikkenøkkelattributt" translates to a non-key attribute in database terminology. It refers to any piece of information that is not part of the primary key or any candidate key of a relation (table) in a relational database. These attributes describe the entity represented by the tuple (row) but do not uniquely identify it.

In simpler terms, if you imagine a table of customers, the customer ID might be the primary key. An ikkenøkkelattributt would be information like the customer's name, address, or phone number. While this information is important for describing the customer, it doesn't, by itself, distinguish one customer from another if, for example, two customers share the same name.

The concept of ikkenøkkelattributter is fundamental to understanding database normalization. Normalization aims to organize data in a way that reduces redundancy and improves data integrity. During this process, attributes are analyzed to ensure they are functionally dependent on the key. Ikkenøkkelattributter are the ones that are not part of this direct functional dependency on the primary key, or they might be dependent on other non-key attributes, which can lead to issues if not handled properly during normalization. For instance, if an attribute is only dependent on another non-key attribute, it might be moved to a separate table.