A Hands-On Guide to Relational Database Design (3rd Edition)

This is the BEST book there is for learning about DB design from the ground up. It moves very quickly from theory to how to practically implement a robust DB design. It assumes no knowledge, but by the end of the book you WILL be able to sit in discussions with MIS and understand and contribute to the discussion. I don't want to leave the impression, however, that this skips the hard topics: far from it. It covers Business Rules and even has some excellent forms that you can copy from the book and use in your information-gathering sessions.
Bottom Line: Get this book and get the big picture, then get the specialized book for your DBMS.

Excellent and easy read. A software book that anyone can understand. The flow is perfect and the author walks you through the database design process in a smooth fashion. I wish that he write a book on Software Design and Architecture.
I gave 4 stars because the book was a bit wordy and repetitive. It could have been 100 pages less.

The core of the book (Part II: The Design Process) details the author's own step-by-step approach to designing new (or redesigning legacy) databases for businesses, deliberately omitting any discussion of formal methodology (e.g., database normalization). It's heavy on procedure and light on principle — a whole chapter is devoted to interviewing stakeholders to help guide the logical design process — and he insists that you must follow the whole approach from start-to-finish, or else you might as well have not followed it at all.

That's great if you're on a project where you can focus full-time on database development AND you need a crash course on it, but for anyone else (like a full-stack web developer), his approach is just way too bloated. And god forbid you're reading this to try to qualify for a job working on databases; how well would you fare in the interview if you had barely even heard of normalization?

There are other issues with the book (e.g., he often makes value judgments like "the benefit of x is that it's more efficient" without explaining or illustrating them), but the lack of a well-defined audience is really a fatal one.

This book spoke to me so clearly; it addressed exactly the kinds of questions I have had for so long! By nature I gravitate towards organization and order, and for years I have sworn that I would love to learn how to design programs to organize a small company's books and records. But I didn't know how to begin. And I am not a programmer. And all the darn RDBMS software manuals out there only tell you how to use their database program, not how to go about designing a database! Thank you for this book! I feel like I'll be starting off on the right foot now.

As a relative novice to programming and RDBMS design, I took the advice of the other the store.com reviewers and got this book. On the whole it was worth it. This book is an excellent primer for novices, although for those with a degree of experience or those who catch on pretty quickly, it could be too wordy. As my experience level increased as I read the book, I found the nuggest of essential wisdom buried deeper and deeper in redundant text or explanations that had become to basic for me.
On the whole, though, I would recommend this book to anyone starting out in databases.

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.

This book is excellent for understanding database theory. Please note it does not tell you how to use any one specific database program, but it allows you to understand what is going on so that after you learn how any database program you will understand what is going on and in effect build better databases.
The only reason I did not give the book 5 stars was due to it's excessive information on interviews (repeating the same thing over and over again in almost every chapter). Other then that the book was great and is an absolute must for any newcomber to databases--and some more expireanced people as well.

The title conveys well the usefulness of this book.
After wading through a dozen books on the theoretical aspects of relational database design, I was looking for a good introductory text on the actual practice of building tables. I found this book an excellent primer.
I have made this book required reading at our company for novice database developers. It's a quick read and removes the fear of atttempting database development. It's an a - z approach, so coupled with one of the common ACCESS references, the book provides all that is needed for single-handed developement of a simple relational database project.

I have corresponded with the author of this book, and he responded promptly and courteously. I'm happy I bought this book. It does not replace C. J. Date or E. F. Codd, but it is one of the best places for someone to start if they want to know about relational databases but don't have a grasp of why the relational model is so important. Why choose this book over another? Because the author is a great writer and explains terms clearly, and because the layout of the book is attractive and clear. Once finished with it, readers can move on to the nitty gritty of the relational model itself--this book is to help avoid mistakes while designing databases for actual use. But it's for someone who wants more substance than is available in the Dummies-type books (as strong as they are in addressing the concerns of their audience). If you're not a computer science major but want to learn about RDBMSs now, get this book.

A professional database developer recommended this text to me,a novice. He stipulated that the value of the book lay in its "from-the-ground-up" development of the foundations of a proposed relational database.
I have spent nearly 10 years in computing, including many years of using canned, proprietary flat-file databases implemented in Fortran. For personal use, up till now, I had never graduated beyond the level of constructing "databases" with tables in word-processors, elaborate spreadsheets, and simple flat-file databases of the generic *Works variety. These exercises all required extensive redundancy of data entry, and inability to format and extract information usefully.
Hernandez has provided an excellent primer for the inexperienced database designer and user, especially one whose efforts to date have been confined to more primitive tools. Parts of the text (constructing hypothetical interview scenarios) are repetitive and tendentious, but they are the only serious detraction from the value this book offers.
This book can be absolutely recommended for the novice (the user of word-processors, spreadsheets and flat-file databases) and intelligently recommended for relational database designers and users who are dissatisfied with the program product they are currently involved with.

After using this book to teach a database course, most of my students seem to agree with the following:
This book does not deal with database design; for the most part, it deals with definitions and small details. For example, the author focuses on little things like what to name your tables and fields.
This book contains very little in the way of actual database design concepts. It uses so many pages to explain things which have nothing to do with actual database design. The information relating to design is very detail oriented with no conceptual framework to tie it all together. This leaves students with no idea of how the little pieces fit into the big picture.
Try designing a database on your own after reading this book and see how far you actually get. When (or even if) you complete this task, take the finished product to someone who truly knows database design and ask for comments and criticism. I think that you'll be surprised at how little you've actually learned from this book.
For this upcoming semester, I plan on using Inside Relational Databases (ISBN 1852334010). I hope that it will be a better book.
Updates:
1) I didn't get a chance to teach this class again.
2) The students complained about this book and its companion book (SQL Queries for Mere Mortals)...

As a starter text on relational systems, this is a winner. Clear, concise, and enjoyable. A perfect complement to Date's verbose "classic": An Introduction to Database Systems. Chapter's 5 and 6 need work, but they do speak to the reality of investing in front-end work, something not done by most in most industries. 320/400 pages=80% Bravo Michael, books written in this vain on db design are a rarity!

I had bought this book several months ago, but put it down in favor of other "quick and dirty" books on setting up Relational Databases. As a consequence, I am having to rebuild from scratch because I never fully understood the theory behind it. Now I'm paying for it.
I am finding "Database Design For Mere Mortals" to be an excellent instruction book, taking me from beginning to end, step by step. I'm only on page 105, but already I've learned more about RDBMS theory than I'd gotten in the previous year of working with them. MJH is truly a guru.
I have only one misgiving about the book, however: it is a little dry. But perhaps that is *my* flaw: I expected database design to be fast, simple, glossy, and effortless. This book proves otherwise. Database design is serious and requires a lot of forethought. So the book is necessarily ponderous, showing you the right way to do things.

I was suprised by how much this book was praised. The praises were written on the back cover and on the inside pages. I'm just writing so that potential buyers would not be mislead by such exaggerated reviews as I was. There's not much in it. I read the book over and over again to make out something out of it, but just in vain. I think the book could be reduced to just about 100 pages. I could get more information about database design and normalization from books such as Roger Jennings' Access, even though it covers only a few pages. Very disappointed.

EDITED :
I have to edit and give it 4 stars, but on the condition that one has already got a decent knowledge of database design. The book does discuss about normalization up to the third normal form but it is just simply not stating it. For those who are already familiar with the 3 normal forms, this book can be used to reinforce knowledge about normalization with the examples given. It also covers relationships quite well. As a conclusion, this book is suitable for those who are already familiar with database design but needs more examples / explanations.

It seems like everyone who likes this book thinks it would be useful for experienced designers as well as novices. Some reviewers who apparently do not consider themselves novices found it very helpful. Well, it depends on your definition of novice. An novice db designer may have lots of experience in programming, or even creating databases. That does not mean they have experience relating data to a business problem or solving problems caused by bad design. I've seen programmers who solve design problems by coding around them. This book does a good job in emphasizing all the things that a person with technical skills but a lack of business skills may have lacked in their experience or education: how to talk to people, how to organize a project, how to analyze a business problem and a technical solution. This is like people who learn in school how to solve equations, but get stumped by word problems.
I bought this book based on the great reviews and assertions it was not just for novices. In my opinion, it is for anyone who has learned at most the technical aspect, and needs the theoretical and business background. In addition it does look like the book had less than thorough editing. It is littered with are typos, incorrect grammar, illustrations with poor placement relative to text, and erroneous or questionable statements (though these last are mainly confined to commentary), references to previously unexplained terms, etc. However, no book is perfect and although I found these things annoying, they would be scarcely significant to a novice, as he does have a very easy to read, non-technical approach. Clean it up with editing and call it something like Database Design Step By Step and it would actually be a great book. One last note: a review calls this a good book for the nasty task of db design... people with the right skills find database design a challenging, enjoyable problem. If someone doesn't enjoy the task, perhaps it's just not a good fit for them.

Solid database design book for beginners. EVERY ACCESS DEVELOPER on the planet should read this book BEFORE developing any database for the company they work for. It would save the rest of us an awful lot of conversion work when the inevitable day comes that some manager decides that what the company really needed all along was a full fledge database (meaning...converting that old access garbage over to Oracle...MySQL...whatever). PLEASE, if you are an access developer READ THIS BOOK. Once you have finished it learn to use a real database system. It's a little wordy, but necessary when writing to this level.

This should be the first book you read on relational databases. Read this book BEFORE taking courses or starting to work on specific database implementation software. It provides guidance and structure on how to correctly model a database. I wish I had read it earlier and before multiple attempts in building a database in SQL Server. I now understand how it's supposed to work! The book was also fun to read! After you have mastered the contents, you are ready to move on to other more advanced books and/or implementation of your new database design. Excellent book!

Everyone who works with databases should read this book. There are numerous How-To books for implementing databases with various products, but Mere Mortals is one of a kind. Most database problems are caused by poor design. If the data model is clear, developing is easy. Michael walks through the complete design process with clear language and valuable advice. Both novices and "experts" can benefit from studying this book. I used this book successfully in a beginning database development class, and I highly recommend it as a companion or prerequisite to any How-To book for Microsoft Access, SQL Server, Oracle, FoxPro, Sybase, or other DBMS.

I am a learning programmer and database application developer. This book was a real breath of fresh air. I've been studying Client/Server models, advanced SQL, stored procedures, multi-tier applications, and on and on, but the whole time feeling like there was a hole in my education. I didn't know what it was until I read this book.
This book was exactly what I needed and exactly the treatment to the database subject that has been absent from all the other books on the subject I have read. The design of the database is the bedrock of all database development, absolutely.

A very nice book, which makes the daunting task of designing databases easy for "mortals". I like the facts that 1) the book is well written and easy to follow, 2) examples are plenty and to-the-point, 3) checklists or numbered procedures are handy for dealing with real problems.
But for "immortals" (or smarties, or professionals) who earn a living on designing databases, this book may be too simple. First, the book is not concise and may be distilled into half less without losing any essential concept. Second, serious stuff like normal forms may be added. Third, maybe an expanded chapter on special situations like analysis- or performance-centered design. But this will change the title of the book, which is not what the author intends to do, I guess.

Great Book. Simple and Easy to Understand. Reads as if Mike Hernandez is talking directly to you. There is no way that you would not have basic skills to design a relational database after having read this book. I would highly suggest this book for people looking to develop or manage already created databases in MS Access or any other rdbms applications. This is definitely a great reference book to have on the shelf. Relational database design is very understandable and well explained by this book.

I had a database design class for my engineering undergraduate degree that used this book. The book describes a practical approach to designing databases by meeting the criteria of what the author calls the "ideal field", "ideal table", etc.. This approach is easy to follow but the author draws this simple approach out into almost 600 pages. Normalization as a process and the various normal forms are not covered, although the approach does yield 3NF results. My biggest complaint is that the book does not have a single line of SQL in it! I found myself taking a course where the book is virtually useless and students have to read all kinds of articles from other sources just to complete their assignments.

Too much background and emphasis on interviews and talking to everyone in the company before explaing how to put together a logical database. The first half of the book elaborates on the importance of preparation and that we'll get to designing and joining tables and establishing relationships later. When it finally comes, it's not very thorough. Too much on preparing and not enough on designing and building databases.

This book can be quickly read through without much difficulty for a programmer who is rarely involved in database design.
I find out one big error, however. On Chapter 3 the examples of one to many and many to many relationships are incorrectly depicted in the Figures. It causes great confusion here.

I just finished reading this new edition, and it looks like it continues to serve the purpose of the earlier editions. If you are new to data modeling, this is a great place to start. A properly designed database (both logically and physically) will make all the difference in the long run to maintainability, stability, and flexibility as business needs change. This book will give you the foundation to make this happen.

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.

I am dissapointed with this book. The first half of this book is explaining how to make an interview with your client, and then use the interview data to design the database tables. It explains too much everyone-knows-it stuff, like a table's name must reflect it's contents, etc.
The useful part of this book maybe is only one or two chapters. The explanation about table relationship is not so bad, eventhough it is a bit overexplained.

As the other reviewers have said, this book does not explain everything about database design. Databases can be so extremly complex, could any book tell you all you'd need to know? This is a great place to start and Mere Mortals will teach you a mountain of details. If you are completely clueless, start with the Absolute Beginner's Guide. If you know a thing or two, this book will be a valuable addition to your collection.
Overall, this is a very high quality volume. If you are into relationships, pick one up. Recommended.

I challenge anyone with little or no design experience to read this book and look back a year or two from now and say anything other than 'this is a great book!' I read it over two years ago and though I have had tremendous growth in this area since, I am amazed at just how valuable and clear this text still is. DB design is a challenge, and mastering the basics covered in this book will help you immensely. I can't speak for the 'experts' who read this and laughed at the simplicities and over-explanations. But, I can speak for those seeking to master the design process essentials and want a clear and concise guide for their journey... this is that book.

Don't volunteer to design a database until you've read this book! It provides a firm foundation on the theory behind database design, for mere mortals such as myself. ONE WARNING: This book did not cover naming conventions in any detail. The author does provide some "content defining" guidelines, such as make the name relevant to the organization, etc., but information about consistent use of prefixes to identify tables/forms/macros, etc., aren't covered. Even an appendix would help! I'm using the L/R Naming Standard, I'm sure there's others.

This book gets the reader to begin thinking about relationships and entities absent of implementation - which is a critical part of being a database designer. Practical implementation details will round out your skillset, but a deep understanding of the basics, which this book provides, will give you the confidence to work with any RDBMS.

This is probably the single best book on database design I've read. It assumes some background in databases to begin with though, so I would recommend the reader to be familiar with at least one RDMS prior to reading this one. The key here is the method of designing a database: the interview process, the pragmatic approach to understanding the needs of a business before writing any SQL, etc. In other words, don't pick this one up expecting to learn how to design the next Borland engine, read it to discover how to make a living as a professional DBA.

The pragmatic programmer would compliment this book nicely for a senior level DBA course.

Mr. Hernandez,
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!
I have read your book "Database Design for Mere Mortals" and found it to be absolutely gratifying. I mean I totally get it! The selection came as a result of a recommendation from an instructor. I am planning on going for my Oracle certification but wanted to hit the ground running before class started. I found the concepts to be very easy to read and comprehend. I realized the practicality of the concepts and was able to say to myself "well, that makes sense." I am glad to have found this book and will look forward to reading your other publications soon.

A must read for anyone, whether your considering a career in database development, an experienced developer, or your managing a team of developers. Explains the logical database design process from start to finish without being application specific.

Michael J. Hernandez takes known, accepted database analysis and design methodology and turns it into step-by step techniques to design and develop a good relational database. Mr. Hernandez writes in a manner that any developer, regardless of his/her background or experience, can read and understand. The techniques are written for desktop environment, but can be applied to larger database systems as well. The book is easy to read without being simplistic, and is application non-specific. I heartily recommend it.

This book is an easy to understand and straight forward approach to database design. I greatly appreciate Michael Hernandez's style of writing and diagrams in this edition. Well done and a must-have reference book for all.

Written in easy-to-read English, this book is great as an aide-memoir to those of us who want a refresh on all those things we forget to do, or for those who want an insight into "how to do it". The structured view on setting up tables, fields, views, etc. for the beginner is especially helpful. It's independance from any specific database is refreshing too, these are the generic rules we should all follow. This book is a must for every office.

This book favors a common-sense approach to database design, a methodology I read this book to avoid. The book is much better suited as a primer and reference of database terms. I was looking for a more rigorous and structured design methodology than his form-ridden "feel-it-out" approach he pushes. For those with more than three weeks worth of working around databases, I suggest you look elsewhere.

Simply put this book assumes its reader is a complete and total idiot. 80% of the book is just filler...overexplaining almost every tiny detail to the point of absurdity. So much wasted paper is spent on interview techniques and field names which is all common sense. If you have any common sense, spend your money elsewhere.

Simply put this book assumes its reader is a complete and total idiot. 80% of the book is just filler...overexplaining almost every tiny detail to the point of absurdity. So much wasted paper is spent on interview techniques and field names which is all common sense. If you have any common sense, spend your money elsewhere.

This book gives a firm foundation to beginners in relational databases, and will also help correct common faults of those who are more experienced.
If it has a fault it is that it is somewhat repetitious but then this may be a good thing for many of us who skim over texts.

If you have ever attended a course of Relational Database Design in school, you would want to look somewhere else, its too basic. I myself was looking at refereshing my RDBMS concepts but found the book lacking in depth. This book probably is good for people who just looked up the word "Database" in the dictionary.

I had an opportunity to read this recently. It is an excellent delineation of the basic concepts and techniques involved in database design.

If you are a beginner and need a compass to guide you through the new and unfamiliar terrain of database development, I highly recommend this book.

This is an excellent book for the average person who wants to know more about database design. The author has an excellent way of explaining the not so obvious and bringing it down to layman's terms. Great learning tool.

!!! Pathetic !!! ... excuse me, PATHETIC !

Buying this book online had taught me to FIRST READ the REVIEWS and if at all possible look at the local bookstore before you buy online. I keep picking this book up, and then putting it down ,,, and if ever a book needed to be put down, it is this one.

Normalization, page 36 and page 39 ,,, kind of.

Save your time, save your money ... this isn't for mere mortals, it is for someone who doesn't need to know about Database Design. Move along folks, there's nothing to see here ...

it's just an accident.

Don't waste your money on this book. After wading through countless pages about the author, and his life, what's left is common sense rules that most people know anyways.I read the whole thing, and finished without learning a thing.

This book is THE book for the database beginner. It thoroughly covers design principles and process, and it covers them in depth.

The book is broken into four parts, Part I: Relational Database Design, Part II: The Design Process, Part III: Other Database Design Issues, and Part IV: Appendixes.

Part I starts with a chapter that gives the history of databases and the path we took to get where we are. It continues with a chapter that covers the reason to have a good design methodology and what the goal of the methodology should be.

Chapter three is really cool for those just getting into database design. It introduces some of the most common terminology used in the database design process. It is not just a glossary (which this book also has after the appendixes), it goes much further than just a definition and includes diagrams to help with the explanations.

Part II covers the database design process. Topics the author covers include table structures, field specifications, assigning primary keys, table relationships, views, and levels of data integrity.

Part III covers bad design and when bending the rules of proper design are ok.

The appendices (Part IV) include a summary of design guidelines, example form templates, diagram symbols, a check list of design guidelines, and an activity diagram (flowchart) of the database design process.

I have listed each part and the chapters they contain below.

Part I. Relational Database Design
1. The Relational Database
2. Design Objectives
3. Terminology

Part II. The Design Process
4. Conceptual Overview
5. Starting the Process
6. Analyzing the Current Database
7. Establishing Table Structures
8. Keys
9. Field Specifications
10. Table Relationships
11. Business Rules
12. Views
13. Reviewing Data Integrity

Part III. Other Database Design Issues
14. Bad Design--What Not to Do
15. Bending or Breaking the Rules

Part IV. Appendixes
A. Answers to Review Questions
B. Diagram of the Database Design Process
C. Design Guidelines
D. Documentation Forms
E. Database Design Diagram Symbols
F. Sample Designs
G. On Normalization
H. Recommended Reading

One thing this book does not include is coverage of the structured query language bracket (SQL). This book is purely about designing the database not about what to do with the data once it is in the database. That's not a downfall of the book, it actually makes it better. The author is able to focus on design principles and drill much further into them by excluding teaching SQL.

Overall I found the author's writing made reading the book a pleasant experience. I cannot say that for all database books I have read. Another reason it is good is that the author goes into extreme detail on each topic he covers.

The author also has made the forms he uses in the book available in Word and PDF format for download on the publisher's web site

All in all I highly recommend this book to database beginners. It will teach you how to do things the right way from the get-go.

I also recommend it for the non-DBA developer who is tasked with creating databases on their projects because the project can't afford a real DBA. There are a lot of those out there and I have seen them be the cause of many painful projects that have to manipulate good code into bad code to compensate for poor database design.