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Designing Relational Databases Summary

Database design involves 6 phases: 1) identifying entities like people and products, 2) constructing a data model showing how entities are associated, 3) adding primary keys and attributes to the model, 4) normalizing the data model and adding foreign keys, 5) constructing the physical database, and 6) preparing user views. The phases help ensure the database structure aligns with user needs and business rules through techniques like identifying entities, modeling associations between entities, normalizing the data to minimize duplication, and defining primary and foreign keys.

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53 views2 pages

Designing Relational Databases Summary

Database design involves 6 phases: 1) identifying entities like people and products, 2) constructing a data model showing how entities are associated, 3) adding primary keys and attributes to the model, 4) normalizing the data model and adding foreign keys, 5) constructing the physical database, and 6) preparing user views. The phases help ensure the database structure aligns with user needs and business rules through techniques like identifying entities, modeling associations between entities, normalizing the data to minimize duplication, and defining primary and foreign keys.

Uploaded by

Thomas_Godric
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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DESIGNING RELATIONAL DATABASES

Database Design
-

is a component of a much larger system development process that involves


extensive analysis of user needs
6 Phases of Database Design (collectively known as view modeling):
1. Identify entities.
2. Construct a data model showing entity associations.
3. Add primary keys and attributes to the model.
4. Normalize the data model and add foreign keys.
5. Construct the physical database.
6. Prepare the user views.

1. Identify Entities
Entities
- are things which about which the organization wishes to capture
data
- are represented as nouns in a system description
2 Conditions need to be met to be valid entities:
a. An entity must consist of two or more occurrences.
b. An entity must contribute at least one attribute that is not provided
through other entities.
2. Construct a Data Model Showing Entity Associations.
Associations
- represent business rules that impact the structure of the database
tables
Designers need to understand the organizations business rules and the
specific needs of individual users.
Document with an ER Diagram
3. Add Primary Keys and Attributes to the Model.
Add Primary Keys
- Select a primary key that logically defines the nonkey attributes
and uniquely identifies each occurrence in the entity
- Sequential codes, block codes, group codes, alphabetic codes and
mnemonic codes
Add Attributes
- Every attribute should appear directly or indirectly in one or more
user views
4. Normalize the Data Model and Add Foreign Keys.
Normalization Issues
Repeating Group Data
- The existence of multiple values for a particular attribute in a
specific record
Partial Dependencies

Occurs when one or more nonkey attributes are dependent on


(defined by) only part of the primary key, rather than the whole
key
Transitive Dependencies
- Occurs in a table where nonkey attributes are dependent on
another nonkey attribute and independent of the tables primary
key

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