Relational Database Design Clearly Explained, Second Edition (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Data Management Systems)

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.

Jan L. Harrington, author of more than 35 books on a variety of technical subjects, has been writing about databases since 1984. She retired in 2013 from her position as professor and chair of the Department of Computing Technology at Marist College, where she taught database design and management, data communications, computer architecture, and the impact of technology on society for 25 years.