Fully revised and updated, Relational Database Design, Second Edition is the most lucid and effective introduction to relational database design available. Here, you'll find the conceptual and practical information you need to develop a design that ensures data accuracy and user satisfaction while optimizing performance, regardless of your experience level or choice of DBMS.
Supporting the book's step-by-step instruction are three case studies illustrating the planning, analysis, and design steps involved in arriving at a sound design. These real-world examples include object-relational design techniques, which are addressed in greater detail in a new chapter devoted entirely to this timely subject.
* Concepts you need to master to put the book's practical instruction to work. * Methods for tailoring your design to the environment in which the database will run and the uses to which it will be put. * Design approaches that ensure data accuracy and consistency. * Examples of how design can inhibit or boost database application performance. * Object-relational design techniques, benefits, and examples. * Instructions on how to choose and use a normalization technique. * Guidelines for understanding and applying Codd's rules. * Tools to implement a relational design using SQL. * Techniques for using CASE tools for database design.
Read as support for my Son's CSE class. Having 30+ years in RDBMS solutions, was actually quite pleased on the approach and coverage this book provides.
Where this book really separates itself from the plethora of books available about SQL and Databases is that the book maintains a keen focus on the design decisions that go into creating a database, instead of simply finding a trivial example that demonstrates the syntax. Overall, I found the book to be very approachable, while at the same time not shying away from intermediate level topics.