Grokking Relational Database Design - Softcover

Hao, Qiang; Tsikerdekis, Michail

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1633437418 ISBN 13: 9781633437418

Publisher: Manning, 2025

Synopsis

A friendly illustrated guide to designing and implementing your first database.

Grokking Relational Database Design makes the principles of designing relational databases approachable and engaging. Everything in this book is reinforced by hands-on exercises and examples.

In Grokking Relational Database Design, you’ll learn how to:

• Query and create databases using Structured Query Language (SQL)
• Design databases from scratch
• Implement and optimize database designs
• Take advantage of generative AI when designing databases

A well-constructed database is easy to understand, query, manage, and scale when your app needs to grow. In Grokking Relational Database Design you’ll learn the basics of relational database design including how to name fields and tables, which data to store where, how to eliminate repetition, good practices for data collection and hygiene, and much more. You won’t need a computer science degree or in-depth knowledge of programming—the book’s practical examples and down-to-earth definitions are beginner-friendly.

About the technology

Almost every business uses a relational database system. Whether you’re a software developer, an analyst creating reports and dashboards, or a business user just trying to pull the latest numbers, it pays to understand how a relational database operates. This friendly, easy-to-follow book guides you from square one through the basics of relational database design.

About the book

Grokking Relational Database Design introduces the core skills you need to assemble and query tables using SQL. The clear explanations, intuitive illustrations, and hands-on projects make database theory come to life, even if you can’t tell a primary key from an inner join. As you go, you’ll design, implement, and optimize a database for an e-commerce application and explore how generative AI simplifies the mundane tasks of database designs.

What's inside

• Define entities and their relationships
• Minimize anomalies and redundancy
• Use SQL to implement your designs
• Security, scalability, and performance

About the reader

For self-taught programmers, software engineers, data scientists, and business data users. No previous experience with relational databases assumed.

About the author

Dr. Qiang Hao and Dr. Michail Tsikerdekis are both professors of Computer Science at Western Washington University.

Table of Contents

Part 1
1 Introducing databases and SQL
2 Related tables and more SQL
3 Overview of database design
Part 2
4 Entities and attributes
5 Relationships
6 Normalization and implementation
7 Security and optimization
Part 3
8 Database design in the age of generative AI

About this title

About the Author

Qiang Hao is an associate professor of Computer Science at Western Washington University. He is a recognized expert in computing education research and has extensive experience in teaching a variety of computer science courses, such as software engineering and database systems.

Michail Tsikerdekis is an associate professor of Computer Science at Western Washington University. He holds a Ph.D. in Informatics from Masaryk University, Czechia. Additionally, he is recognized as an IEEE Senior Member, and his expertise covers over a decade of teaching experience in Computer Science and Cybersecurity.

From the Back Cover

From the back cover:

Grokking Relational Database Design teaches the art of database design through real-world projects, insightful illustrations, and action-oriented learning. Unlike many beginning database books that focus on the technical details of SQL and formal database theory, this book teaches you how to think about relational database design from the ground up, so you'll create databases that are a joy to use for a long time.

Everything in this book is reinforced by hands-on exercises and examples. You'll quickly design, implement, and optimize a database for an e-commerce application like the ones you use every day. You'll also explore how generative AI tools such as ChatGPT radically simplify the mundane tasks of database design.

About the reader:

Suitable for self-taught programmers, engineers, data scientists, and business data users. No previous experience with relational databases required.

Edition details

• Publisher: Manning
• Publication date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1633437418
• ISBN 13: 9781633437418
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 280