Are these tables in 2nd normal form? 3rd?

Question

I have the following tables in my database:

Above these tables (not pictured) is a Users table where the SendingUserId and ReceivingUserId are keyed onto (they are foreign keys).

Are these tables in a normalized form? I feel as if I'm missing something.. maybe the SendingUserId and ReceivingUserId should be a composite key in the UsersWithMessages table?

Answer 1

As long as one message can have no more than one sender and no more than one receiver, you do not have a many-to-many relationship.

Since your Message table already contains SendingUserId and ReceivingUserId , just make them Foreign Keys (FK) and you would not need UsersWithMessages table at all.

You will have a simple two-table schema: User and Message .