What is database design in DBMS and what are the popular database design tools? And what are some of the database design best practices and database design examples?
The process of developing a logical and physical structure for data storage and organisation in a database management system (DBMS) is known as database design. Data storage efficiency and effectiveness, as well as simple retrieval and manipulation, are the goals of database design.
Frequently used database design tools are:
- ER/Studio, a programme for building database objects and data models.
- Toad Data Modeller is a programme for developing, maintaining, and archiving data models.
- MySQL Workbench, a programme used to build and maintain MySQL databases.
- A tool for creating diagrams that can be used to construct database models is Microsoft Visio.
- Oracle SQL Developer Data Modeller: This application allows you to build and maintain data models for Oracle databases.
Several of the recommended practises for database design includes but not limited to:
- Clearly describe business requirements: Prior to constructing a database, it is critical to clearly define business requirements and comprehend user demands.
- Normalise data: Normalisation is the act of dissecting large amounts of data into more digestible chunks. It aids in reducing data duplication and ensuring data consistency.
- Use the correct data types: Deciding on the best data types for each database field helps reduce storage needs and boost performance.
- Maintain data integrity: Primary and foreign key constraints, for example, can help to ensure that the data in the database is accurate and consistent by enforcing data integrity requirements
- Use indexing and partitioning to your advantage: These techniques can help you make improvements.
Some of the examples of database designs includes but not limited to:
- Database for an e-commerce website: This database might have tables for customer data, order history, product inventories, and sales information.
- Database for human resources: This database may have tables for employee data, wage and benefit information, and performance assessments.
- The database for the social media platform may have tables with user data, posts, comments, and likes.
- Database for the hospital management system may contain tables for patient data, medical history, test results, and appointment scheduling.