Head First SQL, 2nd Edition

Chapter 7. Normalization and Multiple Tables Thoughtful Table Design

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Calling all architects and designers. You’ve been constructing tables without giving them much thought. And that’s fine, they work. You can do all the CRUD operations on them and write as elaborate SELECT statements as necessary. But as you get more data, you’ll start seeing things you wish you’d done to make your WHERE clauses simpler. Or you perhaps your single table just isn’t big enough anymore, and you need to renovate your floor plans a bit. As your data becomes more complex, the KEY is to make your tables more normal and divide your data into multiple related tables. Who knows? Maybe your optimal blueprints result in plans for an entire skyscraper. Read on to find out.

Two mountainous tables

Junko and Maria both created tables to store information about ...