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Databases for Real
Database Design
Entities, Attributes and Relationships
Issue: 1.3 (December/January 2002)
Author: Paul Lefebvre
Author Bio: Paul Lefebvre is a software architect in Portland, Maine.
Article Description: No description available.
Article Length (in bytes): 6,710
Starting Page Number: 27
RBD Number: 1313
Resource File(s): None
Related Link(s): None
Known Limitations: None
Excerpt of article text...
In this month's column we will discuss some basic database design skills such as how to identify entities, attributes, and relationships. We will also learn what it means to normalize a database. Let's get started!
Database Analysis
Analysis is the first step when designing a relational database. In the analysis phase, we are looking to identify entities and attributes. When the database is eventually built, the entities generally become tables and their attributes become columns within the tables.
In our last column we quickly created tables to store the schedule for our local Softball League. In this column we will step back and consider the initial design of these tables. To refresh you memory, here is the original problem:
We want to store the schedule for our local Softball League that consists of 8 teams, each with a coach. Each team plays 10 games. The teams are the Ducks, Penguins, Bears, Tigers, Lions, Wolves, Dolphins, and Marlins.
Here are some definitions to keep in mind as we work through the design:
...End of Excerpt. Please purchase the magazine to read the full article.
Article copyrighted by REALbasic Developer magazine. All rights reserved.
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