Visual Basic® Style Guide, The

Database Documentation

Proper documentation of your database is the most important aspect of Visual Basic database application development. Even if you completely ignore all of the guidelines listed in the earlier "Database Design" section, adequate documentation will ease the burden of database integration. However, if you lack proper or complete database documentation, you are asking for headaches, especially when you need to modify your application years down the road.

There are several specialized tools to help you in the documentation of your database. The most common of these tools lets you craft entity-relationship diagrams. These diagrams look a little like the Relationships window within Microsoft Access, although they specify much more ...