The basic steps for designing a data structure
The six basic steps for designing a data structure
- Identify the data elements
- Subdivide each element into its smallest useful components
- Identify the tables and assign columns
- Identify the primary and foreign keys
- Review whether the data structure is normalized
- Identify the indexes
Description
- A relational database system should model the real-world environment where it’s used. The job of the designer is to analyze the real-world system and then map it onto a relational database system.
- A table in a relational database typically represents an object, or entity, in the real world. Each column of a table is used to store an attribute associated with the entity, and each row represents one instance of the entity.
- To model a database and the relationships between its tables after a real-world system, you can use a technique called entity-relationship (ER) modeling. Some of the diagrams you’ll see in this chapter apply the basic elements of ER modeling.
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