A Sane Approach to Database Design

Learn how to create an accurate, efficient, maintainable database that can be implemented on any modern platform.

There's more to database design than "knowing SQL". Database design is the art of translating real-world requirements into an information model that can be implemented with a relational database. Which particular database product you use is not important. The concepts are the same.

The text includes many sidebars under the heading "Adventures in Real Life!" that give examples of bad database design that I have seen in real systems over the years. I do this not to make fun of past co-workers -- though that is an entertaining side benefit -- but to illustrate the points being made in the main text with real-world, practical examples. These is not a book of abstract theory but of principles that will help you in your daily job.

This book presents a step-by-step guide to building a database. Topics include:

• Requirements gathering
• Introduction to SQL
• The model sequence
• Entities, relationships, and attributes
• Keys and indexes
• Entity-Relationship Diagrams
• Naming
• Normalization
• Implementation
• Breaking the rules

We also lighten things up with our "D. B. Monkey" cartoons, created specially for this book by Ryan Adamson.

The author has been building databases for 28 years. He has developed systems for manufacturing, marketing, merchandising, medical, and military organizations, as an employee and as a consultant. He lives in Michigan with his teenage daughter.