Data Modeling

I have introduced a good variety of developers and analysts to this little book with a positive reaction on all occasions. It makes very few assumptions and moves rapidly from the introductory level to advanced practicality. The author has a style which is commendably concise and precise, relaxed but not wordy, illustrating with copious diagrams. His enthusiasm and professional attitude are obvious, his experience coming from extensive teaching and consulting in the USA and China. He promotes data modeling and database design for systems of any size by entity relationship analysis and diagramming and speaks as a generalist, not tied to any specific database technology.Chapter 1: the difference between conceptual, logical, and physical database design. Good for those who need to be released from inveterately thinking at the physical level.Chapter 2: the Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD), entity attributes, cardinality, recursive relationships, optional/mandatory bounds, and a fascination little section on Quillan's semantic data model for artificial intelligence (AI) knowledge modelling.Chapter 3: how to convert ERD's to relational tables, and performance v. flexibility.Chapter 4: worked examples - a range of simple starter data models. Includes Human Resources dept., tech support, ticket reservation systems, a charity, industrial production operations manage systems, and activity-based costing.Chapter 5: strategic database planning across the organisation to avoid duplication of effort.Chapter 6: Object-oriented data modeling (unfortunately predating UML, time for a second edition Lawrence!).The appendix covers normalization of a relational data model beautifully, including create/update/delete anomalies, functional dependency between attributes, and Normal Form (first normal form, second normal form, third normal form, and domain key normal form (DKNF)). There is an useful reference bibliography and index.Excellent value, highly recommended.

I purchased this book for a new database designer and as a review for myself. We both found it to be extreemly helpful, insightful, and useable. The examples are very clear and relevant. I'd recommend this book as a good basic reference or a "getting started" text.

This is an outstanding text for dbms courses. I use it with another, more broadly-focused text in my dbms course. It has easy-to-understand diagrams and it is easy to read as well.Daniel A. Joseph, Ph.D. - RIT College of Business

Sanders has remarkably developed a compact inexpensive book that articulates the concepts of Data Modeling in an understandable and efficient manner. Most Data Modeling books cost 5 times as much. This book has it all for 15 to 20 dollars and is a Fundamental MUST for any Database Designer.

This is an excellent introductory text book on data modeling, but I bet even experts will find it useful. It is amazing how much information this short volumn contains. It has an exceptional treatment on E-R to relational tables mapping. It also provides a catalog of E-R diagrams that is extremely useful for learning