Practical database design, Part 1 (IBM developerWorks) [LWN.net]

Philipp K. Janert explains database design on IBM's developerWorks. "What are the best choices when designing the schema for a relational database? What is the rationale in deciding in favor of one and against some other alternative? Given the amount of vendor-specific recommendations, it is all too easy to overlook basic relational database fundamentals. In this first of two parts, author Philipp K. Janert talks about simple and complex datatypes, and about primary and foreign keys -- the plumbing that holds the entire database together."

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Practical database design, Part 1 (IBM developerWorks)

Posted May 30, 2003 20:37 UTC (Fri) by leandro (guest, #1460) [Link] (2 responses)

Luminars tend to disagree.

Practical database design, Part 1 (IBM developerWorks)

Posted Jun 1, 2003 6:47 UTC (Sun) by skybrian (guest, #365) [Link] (1 responses)

I would be highly skeptical of any advice given on dbdebunk.com. They are never in doubt but often wrong. Old-school database designers didn't like surrogate keys but now we know better.

Practical database design, Part 1 (IBM developerWorks)

Posted Aug 7, 2003 20:28 UTC (Thu) by leandro (guest, #1460) [Link]

> They are never in doubt

That's because of a rare quality: they tend to write only about what they excel in, excepting Pascal rants agains Religion.

> but often wrong.

Examples? I guess there aren't many, at least not fundamental ones.

> Old-school database designers didn't like surrogate keys but now we know better.

Good DB designers still don't like surrogate keys, as they add complexity to any design without any benefits. You still need candidate keys...