3.Database Design Crash Course

In this chapter we will review the basic principles of database design and normalization. A well-designed database minimizes redundancy without losing any data. That is, we aim to use the least amount of storage space for our database while still maintaining all links between data.

We will cover the following:

• Database concepts and terminology

• Database design principles

• Normalization and the normal forms

• Database design exercises

Database Concepts and Terminology

To understand the principles we will look at in this chapter, we need to establish some basic concepts and terminology.

Entities and Relationships

The very basics of what we are trying to model are entities and relationships. ...

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