www.it-ebooks.info Beginning Database Design Gavin Powell www.it-ebooks.info Beginning Database Design www.it-ebooks.info www.it-ebooks.info Beginning Database Design Gavin Powell www.it-ebooks.info Beginning Database Design Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc 10475 Crosspoint Boulevard Indianapolis, IN 46256 www.wiley.com Copyright © 2006 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published simultaneously in Canada ISBN-13: 978-0-7645-7490-0 ISBN-10: 0-7645-7490-6 Manufactured in the United States of America 10 1B/RV/RR/QV/IN Library of Congress Control Number is available from the publisher No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the 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in electronic books Trademarks: Wiley, the Wiley logo, Wrox, the Wrox logo, Programmer to Programmer, and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc and/or its affiliates, in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners Wiley Publishing, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book www.it-ebooks.info This book is dedicated to Jacqueline — my fondest pride and joy www.it-ebooks.info About the Author Gavin Powell has a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science, with numerous professional accreditations and skills (including Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Windows 2000, ERWin, and Paintshop, as well as Microsoft Access, Ingres, and Oracle relational databases, plus a multitude of application development languages) He has almost 20 years of contracting, consulting, and hands-on educating experience in both software development and database administration roles He has worked with all sorts of tools and languages, on various platforms over the years He has lived, studied, and worked on three different continents, and is now scratching out a living as a writer, musician, and family man He can be contacted at oracledbaexpert@earthlink.net or info@oracledbaexpert.com His Web site at http://www.oracledbaexpert.com offers information on database modeling, database software, and many development languages Other titles by this author include Oracle Data Warehouse Tuning for 10g (Burlington, MA: Digital Press, 2005), Oracle 9i: SQL Exam Cram (1Z0-007) (Indianapolis: Que, 2004), Oracle SQL: Jumpstart with Examples (Burlington, MA: Digital Press, 2004), Oracle Performance Tuning for 9i and 10g (Burlington, MA: Digital Press, 2003), ASP Scripting (Stephens City, VA: Virtual Training Company, 2005), Oracle Performance Tuning (Stephens City, VA: Virtual Training Company, 2004), Oracle Database Administration Fundamentals II (Stephens City, VA: Virtual Training Company, 2004), Oracle Database Administration Fundamentals I (Stephens City, VA: Virtual Training Company, 2003), and Introduction to Oracle 9i and Beyond: SQL & PL/SQL (Stephens City, VA: Virtual Training Company, 2003) www.it-ebooks.info Credits Senior Acquisitions Editor Vice President and Publisher Jim Minatel Joseph B Wikert Development Editor Project Coordinator Kevin Shafer Michael Kruzil Technical Editor Graphics and Production Specialists David Mercer Jonelle Burns Carrie A Foster Denny Hager Joyce Haughey Jennifer Heleine Alicia B South Production Editor Pamela Hanley Copy Editor Susan Hobbs Quality Control Technicians Laura Albert Leeann Harney Joe Niesen Editorial Manager Mary Beth Wakefield Production Manager Tim Tate Proofreading and Indexing TECHBOOKS Production Services Vice President & Executive Group Publisher Richard Swadley www.it-ebooks.info www.it-ebooks.info .. .Beginning Database Design Gavin Powell www.it-ebooks.info Beginning Database Design www.it-ebooks.info www.it-ebooks.info Beginning Database Design Gavin Powell www.it-ebooks.info Beginning Database. .. Object-Relational Database Model 12 14 Examining the Types of Databases 14 Transactional Databases Decision Support Databases Hybrid Databases 15 15 16 Understanding Database Model Design Defining... relational database model from a beginning perspective The title is, therefore, Beginning Database Design A database is a repository for data In other words, you can store lots of information in a database