Beginning Database Design

Table of Contents

1. Title Page
2. Dedication
3. Contents at a Glance
4. Contents
5. Foreword
6. About the Author
7. About the Technical Reviewer
8. Acknowledgments
9. Introduction
   1. Getting It Wrong
   2. Analysis Techniques
   3. Database Implementation
   4. Objective of This Book
10. CHAPTER 1: What Can Go Wrong
    1. Mishandling Keywords and Categories
    2. Repeated Information
    3. Designing for a Single Report
    4. Summary
11. CHAPTER 2: Guided Tour of the Development Process
    1. Initial Problem Statement
    2. Analysis and Simple Data Model
    3. Further Analysis: Revisiting the Use Cases
    4. Design
    5. Implementation
    6. Summary
12. CHAPTER 3: Initial Requirements and Use Cases
    1. Real and Abstract Views of a Problem
    2. What Does the User Do?
    3. What Data Is Involved?
    4. What Is the Objective of the System?
    5. What Data Is Required to Satisfy the Objective?
    6. What Are the Input Use Cases?
    7. What Is the First Data Model?
    8. What Are the Output Use Cases?
    9. More About Use Cases
    10. Finding Out More About the Problem
    11. What Have We Postponed?
    12. Summary
13. CHAPTER 4: Learning from the Data Model
    1. Review of Data Models
    2. Optionality: Should It Be 0 or 1?
    3. A Cardinality of 1: Might It Occasionally Be Two?
    4. A Cardinality of 1: What About Historical Data?
    5. A Many–Many: Are We Missing Anything?
    6. Summary
14. CHAPTER 5: Developing a Data Model
    1. Attribute, Class, or Relationship?
    2. Two or More Relationships Between Classes
    3. Different Routes Between Classes
    4. Relationships Between Objects of the Same Class
    5. Relationships Involving More Than Two Classes
    6. Summary
15. CHAPTER 6: Generalization and Specialization
    1. Classes or Objects with Much in Common
    2. Specialization
    3. Generalization
    4. Inheritance in Summary
    5. When Inheritance Is Not a Good Idea
    6. When Is Inheritance Worth Considering?
    7. Should the Superclass Have Objects?
    8. Objects That Belong to More Than One Subclass
    9. It Isn't Easy
    10. Summary
16. CHAPTER 7: From Data Model to Relational Schema
    1. Representing the Model
    2. Representing Classes and Attributes
    3. Primary Key
    4. Representing Relationships
    5. Representing Inheritance
    6. Summary
17. CHAPTER 8: Normalization
    1. Update Anomalies
    2. Functional Dependencies
    3. Normal Forms
    4. Data Models or Functional Dependencies?
    5. Fourth and Fifth Normal Forms
    6. Summary
18. CHAPTER 9: More on Keys and Constraints
    1. Choosing a Primary Key
    2. Unique Constraints
    3. Using Constraints Instead of Category Classes
    4. Deleting Referenced Records
    5. Summary
19. CHAPTER 10: Queries
    1. Simple Queries on One Table
    2. Queries with Two or More Tables
    3. How Indexes Can Help
    4. Views
    5. Summary
20. CHAPTER 11: User Interface
    1. Input Forms
    2. Reports
    3. Summary
21. CHAPTER 12: Other Implementations
    1. Object-Oriented Implementation
    2. Implementing a Data Model in a Spreadsheet
    3. Summary
22. Conclusion
    1. Understanding the Objective and Requirements
    2. Polishing Your Data Model
    3. Representing Your Model in a Relational Database
    4. Using Your Database
    5. And So . . .
23. Index