Chapter 7. Database Design

Once you have installed the DBMS software on your computer, it can be very tempting to just jump right into creating a database without much thought or planning. As with any software development, this kind of ad hoc approach works only with the simplest of problems. If you expect your database to support any kind of complexity, some planning and design will definitely save you time in the long run. In this chapter, we'll take a look at what constitutes good database design.