Database Design for Mere Mortals™: A Hands-On Guide to Relational Database Design, Second Edition

Refining the Fields

Now that you've assigned fields to each table, you'll refine the fields by improving the field names and resolving any structural problems that may exist. Then you'll refine the tables further by establishing that you've assigned the appropriate fields to each table and that the table structures are sound.

Improving the Field Names

As you know, a field represents a characteristic of the subject of the table to which it belongs. You can easily identify the characteristic a field is supposed to represent when that field has an appropriate name. A field name that is ambiguous, vague, or unclear is a sure sign of trouble and suggests that you have not thoroughly identified the purpose of the field.

Earlier in this chapter, ...