Pro SQL Server Relational Database Design and Implementation, Fifth Edition

Introduction

It was a dark and stormy night…

—Snoopy

These words start many a work of fiction, and usually not the most believable works of fiction either. While this book is clearly, at its core, nonfiction, I felt the need to warn you that nearly every example in this book is fiction, carefully tailored to demonstrate some principle of database design. Why fictitious examples? My good friend, Jeremiah Peschka, once explained it perfectly when he tweeted: “@peschkaj: I’m going to demo code on a properly configured server with best practices code. Then you’re all going to [complain] that it takes too long.” The most egregious work of fiction will be the chapter on requirements, as in most cases the document to describe where to find the actual ...