Re: Relational database design book

On Sun, 14 Dec 2008, Michael Hall wrote:

> I'm wondering if anyone can recommend a good general book on relational database design.
> ...

Mick,

I highly recommend all the books by Joe Celko. He's been writing on
database issues for at least 20 years and communicates very well. I know
that he has a book that covers data normalization[1] and that's probably
what you want to re-learn. His other topics are extremely helpful, too.

For an outstanding book about SQL (recommended to me by Joe when I wrote
to him about a source for knowledge of time-based databases[2]), read Rick
van der Laans's "Introduction to SQL, 4th Edition." It's a very large book
chock full of detailed information written very well.

Rich

--
Richard B. Shepard, Ph.D. | Integrity Credibility
Applied Ecosystem Services, Inc. | Innovation
<http://www.appl-ecosys.com> Voice: 503-667-4517 Fax: 503-667-8863

[1] There are several steps one undertakes to determine which attributes
belong together in a table. When there is no duplication and referential
integrity is ensured you'll have a stable and useful database schema that's
easy to maintain.

[2] Strangely enough -- to me, at least -- the lack of full support for
date- and time-based SQL in database tools such as PostgreSQL is puzzling.
Virtually all business-related databases (think accounting systems as a
prime example) depend on dates. So do many scientific databases.