A Guide to SQL, Eighth
Edition
Chapter Two
Database Design
Fundamentals
Objectives
• Understand the terms entity, attribute, and
relationship
• Understand the terms relation and
relational database
• Understand functional dependence and be
able to identify when one column is
functionally dependent on another
• Understand the term primary key and
identify primary keys in tables
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Objectives (continued)
• Design a database to satisfy a set of
requirements
• Convert an unnormalized relation to first
normal form
• Convert tables from first normal form to
second normal form
• Convert tables from second normal form to
third normal form
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Objectives (continued)
• Create an entity-relationship diagram to
represent the design of a database
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Introduction
• Database design
– Process of determining the particular tables
and columns that will comprise a database
• Must understand database concepts
• Process of normalization
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Database Concepts
• Entity
• Attribute
• Relationship
• Functional dependence
• Primary key
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Relational Database
• A collection of tables
• Tables in Premiere Products Database
– Rep
– Customer
– Orders
– Part
– Order_Line
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Entities, Attributes, and
Relationships
• Entity (like a noun)
– A person, place, thing, or event
• Attribute (like an adjective or adverb)
– Property of an entity
• Relationship
– Association between entities
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Entities, Attributes, and
Relationships (continued)
• One-to-many relationship
– One rep is related to many customers
– Implement by having a common column in
two or more tables
• REP_NUM is a column in the Customer table and
the Rep table
• Repeating groups
– Multiple entries in an individual location
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Entities, Attributes, and
Relationships (continued)
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Entities, Attributes, and
Relationships (continued)
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Entities, Attributes, and
Relationships (continued)
• Relation is a two-dimensional table
– Entries in the table are single-valued
– Each column has a distinct name
– All values in a column are values of the same
attribute
– The order of the columns is immaterial
– Each row is distinct
– The order of the rows is immaterial
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Entities, Attributes, and
Relationships (continued)
• Use shorthand representation to show
tables and columns
REP (REP_NUM, LAST_NAME, FIRST_NAME, STREET,
CITY, STATE, ZIP, COMMISSION, RATE)
CUSTOMER (CUSTOMER_NUM, CUSTOMER_NAME,
STREET,
CITY, STATE, ZIP, BALANCE, CREDIT_LIMIT,
REP_NUM)
ORDERS (ORDER_NUM, ORDER_DATE, CUSTOMER_NUM)
ORDER_LINE (ORDER_NUM, PART_NUM, NUM_ORDERED,
QUOTED_PRICE)
PART (PART_NUM, DESCRIPTION, ON_HAND, CLASS,
WAREHOUSE, PRICE)
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Functional Dependence
• An attribute, B, is functionally dependent
on another attribute (or collection), A, if a
value for A determines a single value for B
at any one time
• B is functionally dependent on A
• A B
• A functionally determines B
• Cannot determine from sample data; must
know the users’ policies
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Functional Dependence
(continued)
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Primary Keys
• Unique identifier for a table
• Column (attribute) A (or a collection of
columns) is the for a table (relation), R, if:
– All columns in R are functionally dependent
on A
– No subcollection of the columns in A
(assuming that A is a collection of columns
and not just a single column) also has
Property 1
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Database Design
• Given a set of requirements that the
database must support
• Requirements gathered through a process
known as systems analysis
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Design Method
1. Read the requirements, identify the entities (objects)
involved, and name the entities
2. Identify the unique identifiers for the entities identified
in step 1
3. Identify the attributes for all the entities
4. Identify the functional dependencies that exist among
the attributes
5. Use the functional dependencies to identify the tables
by placing each attribute with the attribute or minimum
combination of attributes on which it is functionally
dependent
6. Identify any relationships between tables.
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Database Design Requirements
• For Premiere Products
– Must store data about sales reps, customers,
parts, orders, and order lines
– Must enforce certain constraints; for example:
• There is only customer per order
• On a given order, there is at most one line item for
a given part
• The quoted price may differ from the actual price
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Database Design Process Example
• Apply requirements to six steps in design
method
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Normalization
• Identify the existence of potential problems
• Provides a method for correcting problems
• Goal
– Convert unnormalized relations (tables that
contain repeating groups) into various types
of normal forms
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Normalization (continued)
• 1 NF
– Better than unnormalized
• 2 NF
– Better than 1 NF
• 3 NF
– Better than 2 NF
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First Normal Form
• A relation is in first normal form (1NF) if it
does not contain any repeating groups
• To convert an unnormalized relation to
1NF, expand the PK to include the PK of
the repeating group
– This effectively eliminates the repeating group
from the relation
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First Normal Form (continued)
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First Normal Form (continued)
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Second Normal Form
• Redundancy causes problems
• Update Anomalies
– Update
– Inconsistent data
– Additions
– Deletions
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Second Normal Form (continued)
Table is in First Normal Form but not in Second Normal Form
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Second Normal Form (continued)
• A relation is in second normal form (2NF)
if it is in 1NF and no nonkey attribute is
dependent on only a portion of the primary
key
or …
• All nonkey attributes are functionally
dependent on the entire primary key
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Second Normal Form (continued)
• A 1NF relation with a primary key that is a
single field is in 2NF automatically
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Second Normal Form (continued)
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Third Normal Form
• Update anomalies still possible
• Determinant
– An attribute (or collection) that functionally
determines another attribute
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Third Normal Form (continued)
Table is in Second Normal Form but not in Third Normal Form
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Third Normal Form (continued)
• A relation is in third normal form (3NF) if it
is in 2NF and the only determinants it
contains are candidate keys
• Boyce-Codd normal form (BCNF) is the
true name for this version of 3NF
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Third Normal Form (continued)
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Diagrams for Database Design
• Graphical illustration
• Entity-relationship (E-R) diagram
– Rectangles represent entities
– Arrows represent relationships
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Diagrams for Database Design
(continued)
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Diagrams for Database Design
(continued)
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Diagrams for Database Design
(continued)
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Summary
• Definition of entity
• Definition of attribute
• Definition of relationship
• Definition of relation
• Definition of functional dependence
• Definition of primary key
• Database design method
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Summary (continued)
• Normalization
• Unnormalized (repeating groups)
• First normal form (INF)
• Second normal form (2NF)
• Third normal form (3NF)
• Entity-relationship diagram (E-R diagram)
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