Data Modeling ─ A Beginner's Guide

Essential Skills--Made Easy!

Learn how to create data models that allow complex data to be analyzed, manipulated, extracted, and reported upon accurately. Data Modeling: A Beginner's Guide teaches you techniques for gathering business requirements and using them to produce conceptual, logical, and physical database designs. You'll get details on Unified Modeling Language (UML), normalization, incorporating business rules, handling temporal data, and analytical database design. The methods presented in this fast-paced tutorial are applicable to any database management system, regardless of vendor.

Designed for Easy Learning

• Key Skills & Concepts--Chapter-opening lists of specific skills covered in the chapter
• Ask the expert--Q&A sections filled with bonus information and helpful tips
• Try This--Hands-on exercises that show you how to apply your skills
• Notes--Extra information related to the topic being covered
• Self Tests--Chapter-ending quizzes to test your knowledge

Andy Oppel has taught database technology for the University of California Extension for more than 25 years. He is the author of Databases Demystified, SQL Demystified, and Databases: A Beginner's Guide, and the co-author of SQL: A Beginner's Guide, Third Edition, and SQL: The Complete Reference, Third Edition.

Andy Oppel
Andrew J. (Andy) Oppel is a proud graduate of The Boys' Latin School of Maryland and of Transylvania University (Lexington, KY) where he earned a BA in computer science in 1974. Since then he has been continuously employed in a wide variety of information technology positions, including programmer, programmer/analyst, systems architect, project manager, senior database administrator, database group manager, consultant, database designer, and data architect. In addition, he has been a part-time instructor with the University of California (Berkeley) Extension for over 20 years, and received the Honored Instructor Award for the year 2000. His teaching work included developing three courses for UC Extension, "Concepts of Database Management Systems", "Introduction to Relational Database Management Systems", and "Data Modeling and Database Design." He also earned his Oracle 9i Database Associate certification in 2003. He is currently employed as a senior data modeler for Blue Shield of California. Aside from computer systems, Andy enjoys music (guitar and vocals), amateur radio (Pacific Division Vice Director, American Radio Relay League) and soccer (Referee Instructor, U.S. Soccer). Andy has designed and implemented hundreds of databases for a wide range of applications, including medical research, banking, insurance, apparel manufacturing, telecommunications, wireless communications, and human resources. He is the author of Databases Demystified (McGraw-Hill/Osborne, 2004) and SQL Demystified (McGraw-Hill/Osborne, 2005). His database product experience includes IMS, DB2, Sybase, Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Access, MySQL, and Oracle (versions 7, 8, 8i, 9i, and 10g).

Chapter 1. Introduction to Data Modeling
Chapter 2. Relational Database Components
Chapter 3. The Entity Relationship Model
Chapter 4. Gathering Business Requirements
Chapter 5. Conceptual Data Modeling
Chapter 6. Logical Database Design Using Normalization
Chapter 7. Advanced Normalization
Chapter 8. Physical Database Design
Chapter 9. Alternatives for Incorporating Business Rules
Chapter 10. Alternatives for Handling Time Dependent Data
Chapter 11. Modeling for Analytical Databases (Data Warehouses and Data Marts)
Chapter 12. Enterprise Data Modeling