Grokking Relational Database Design

A friendly illustrated guide to designing and implementing your first database.

Grokking Relational Database Design makes the principles of designing relational databases approachable and engaging. Everything in this book is reinforced by hands-on exercises and examples.

In Grokking Relational Database Design , you’ll learn how to: Query and create databases using Structured Query Language (SQL) Design databases from scratch Implement and optimize database designs Take advantage of generative AI when designing databases
A well-constructed database is easy to understand, query, manage, and scale when your app needs to grow. In Grokking Relational Database Design you’ll learn the basics of relational database design including how to name fields and tables, which data to store where, how to eliminate repetition, good practices for data collection and hygiene, and much more. You won’t need a computer science degree or in-depth knowledge of programming—the book’s practical examples and down-to-earth definitions are beginner-friendly.

About the technology

Almost every business uses a relational database system. Whether you’re a software developer, an analyst creating reports and dashboards, or a business user just trying to pull the latest numbers, it pays to understand how a relational database operates. This friendly, easy-to-follow book guides you from square one through the basics of relational database design.

About the book

Grokking Relational Database Design introduces the core skills you need to assemble and query tables using SQL. The clear explanations, intuitive illustrations, and hands-on projects make database theory come to life, even if you can’t tell a primary key from an inner join. As you go, you’ll design, implement, and optimize a database for an e-commerce application and explore how generative AI simplifies the mundane tasks of database designs.

What's inside Define entities and their relationships Minimize anomalies and redundancy Use SQL to implement your designs Security, scalability, and performance
About the reader

For self-taught programmers, software engineers, data scientists, and business data users. No previous experience with relational databases assumed.

About the author

Dr. Qiang Hao and Dr. Michail Tsikerdekis are both professors of Computer Science at Western Washington University.

Table of Contents

Part 1
1 Introducing databases and SQL
2 Related tables and more SQL
3 Overview of database design
Part 2
4 Entities and attributes
5 Relationships
6 Normalization and implementation
7 Security and optimization
Part 3
8 Database design in the age of generative AI