Posted by sybrandb on 08/15/07 11:30

On Aug 15, 1:08 pm, Summercooln...@gmail.com wrote:
> I wonder instead of just brainstorming, there probably is
> a very standard and a simple way to do database schema design.
>
> let's say we are doing a website. the user can go over
> and type in the movie name and zipcode, and the website
> will return all the theaters showing that movie and at what
> time, for theaters in THAT zipcode only (for simplicity).
>
> so how do we just start and use a standard method that
> can be simple and very accurate to ensure good tables design?

The standard method is to make a functional design based upon the end-
users information needs.
The determine your entities and the relations between entities, then
you convert your entities to tables, and your functions to screens.
This is basically what products like Designer and JDeveloper do.
Entity Relationship Modeling is a department of Information Science.
What you describe is taking a pencil, sticking your thumb in the air,
and starting 'somewhere'. This is called Woodshed Modeling.
Regrettably this is how most applications are build nowadays. This
won't work, ever.

--
Sybrand Bakker
Senior Oracle DBA

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