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Database Design for Mere Mortals: A Hands-On Guide to Relational Database Design (2nd Edition) 2nd Edition

3.9 out of 5 stars 47 customer reviews
ISBN-13: 078-5342752847
ISBN-10: 0201752840
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 611 pages
  • Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional; 2 edition (March 13, 2003)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0201752840
  • ISBN-13: 978-0201752847
  • Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 1.4 x 9.2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (47 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #630,085 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
If you are new to database design; this is the book.
I am new; I loved the book. It starts with the basics, describes them in plain English. Then it guides you through a process of sound database design. Although I am not one of them, it is may not be a book for people with a degree of specialized knowledge. You do not need a background in mathematics or computer science to understand it.
Michael Hernandez is one of those rare individuals who sees database design as an art form rather than a science. More importantly, he possesses the ability to communicate complex concepts in simple declarative sentences. The result is an understandable, common sense methodology for developing databases that work.
Why would you ask for more?
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Format: Paperback
I'm a programmer who has been roped into doing some database design work for the database that my application uses.

While this book presents a very sane rational analytic approach based on interviewing users for developing a database system for a large (or small) organization, it isn't so applicable to my situation. When developing a database as the infrastructure to a program (rather than developing a database that stores data for which programmatic access is secondary), the data tends to be more abstract and this book doesn't really address that as much.

Also, it doesn't really address the issue that I'm having right now which is that the legacy database that I'm working with needs work, but I whatever changes I make will require changes to the code, so I was hoping to get some guidance to help me prioritize what changes to make first.

Still, it is well written in simple English and seems like it would be a great read for the intended audience.
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Format: Paperback
I am a business (systems) analyst by profession and I highly recommend this book. Every IT business analyst should own this book and keep it close when defining technical requirements. The author is clear and concise and provides easy-to-understand definitions of relational database terms and how each object/element contributes to sound database design and, ultimately, data integrity.
I read one of the other reviews before writing mine that mentioned that this book may be too simplistic for 'immortals' in the database design world. From what I've experienced in over 15 years in the industry, poor data quality continues to show its ugly head over and over. Maybe if some of those 'immortals' out there would revisit the basics of good database design, more data warehouses would succeed and projects would not overrun due to ever-present bad data!
This is an excellent resource to review over and over again - I say, don't hesitate to buy this. You won't be disappointed (unless, of course, you're immortal!).
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Format: Paperback
The book does a fair job at explaining basic concepts about database design by keeping the english simple. However, it fails to lay a proper foundation for a number of key topics. It is poorly organizated and can not by itself take a novice to a clear understanding of database design.

It appears the book is targeted at designing small MS Access databases. The author fails to develop the concepts of multiple relationships between tables. He also provides a narrow definition of first normal form that violates first normal form and neglects any discussion of Domain Key Normal Form (DKNF).

While the author deserves kuddos for presenting recursion, he fails to do so smoothly or in a single location in the book. Ultimately, a reader may wonder why use recursion because the book clearly doesn't tell them.
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By A Customer on August 31, 2003
Format: Paperback
This is a great book for beginners. As some comments here suggest there is not much of *design* in here if you are already been there and done that before. But, if you are a beginner and wants to start off this would be a great help. Many of the concepts are explained in thourough detail and with solid examples. A definite database design book for beginners.
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Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
Michael Hernandez does a great job of explaining how the relational model works, and how a database should be designed from start to finish. Most of us will probably not follow his advice, though.

If you do decide to follow his advice, then be prepared for a very lengthy trip when designing your DBs. I tried on my first DB and found that the company I was designing the DB for started to get slightly irritated. This is because in this book Michael suggests you have a full blown manager and or user meeting with virtually every single change you make (also meetings for requirements, ideas, characteristic identification, user input meetings, manager meetings... oh look, a change happened, now we have to go through all of the same meetings again... and again... and... >yawn<... every other page in this book suggests another meeting). I must have had 25-30 meetings total, which just isn't necessary. Also, there is all sorts of spec sheets you should fill out for every single aspect of the database. I would probably just use a modeling tool (such as Visio) instead of going through this daunting task (I would have had to fill out over 300 spec sheets just for the fields!... it was a big DB)

Although his way of designing is probably the way you should really go, I found that designing a sound database doesn't require quite so much work. You can do most of the design process if you have a good modeling tool, which is what I ended up doing and my DB turned out quite well (you still should conduct meetings, but not for every single aspect of the database... your clients will begin to think you have no idea what you're doing). However, this book pounds the relational design in your head so much, that you can't help but get over the tough learning curve of how a relational database really should be designed.
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