A good book for you to learn database design and SQL would be "The Practical SQL Handbook". I think the latest edition (3rd?) is a green colour. It is a simple read and will get you hooked up with the basics.
I also personally recommend PostgreSQL over Mysql, but that is just me.
On Mon, 25 Apr 2005, Tim reid wrote:
On 4/25/05, Jim Herrmann kclug@itdepends.com wrote:
Tim, It sounds like you are wanting to do a fairly simple database structure, which is a good way to get started. When you say "open database format", I assume that you are talking about a target platform of a relational database, something like MySQL or Postgres.
I think so. I would like to do something on an F/OSS database platform, maybe something that I could serve on a local LAN (but it is not required) I would also like to be able to do this with software that is free as in beer. I would also like to keep it in a fairly open format (can you DB in XML?)
The first thing you need to do is create a logical model. When doing a logical model use English business names, and not programming
OK, I work with cell phones. I would like to create a DB that I could record repair transactions in. I would like to create a DB that I could search for the PTN(phone number), IMEI, SIM, Account # and Account name. I would also like to have a field (say 50-100 char long) that I could write in a discription about the transaction
Once you have this, you can create an Entity-Relationship (ER) diagram. Now, if you find an attribute occurs multiple times in an entity, then you should "normalize" those attributes into another entity or entities.
Well, each phone is going to have a PTN, IMEI, SIM that is uniqe to that phone. But I guess that the PTN could be the top level attribute, and everything else (IMEI, SIM, Acct.#, Acct name) could be related to it. I would also like to have some sort of widget that would search the DB from last month and let me know if I have filed for compensation on the repair, or if the repair has been paid for at the time of the transaction. If it is a repair that I can file on...or one that I would have to file multiple times to get fully compensated, I would like the widget to tell me that I could do that "today" and give me the entries that I can file on. (so i guess that i will have to have a way to flag a record(?) as paid/not paid)
That's where each attribute of each entity is dependent upon the key, the whole key, and nothing but the key, so help me Codd. (E.F. Codd, an IBM fellow, created relational database theory.) :-)
Wow, that's the first database joke I've ever heard....Wow
That's something of what I think I want to be able to do. Am I headed in the right direction? Also, can you give me some examples of normalization, indexes, keys, etc? Also, what the heck is a DBA?
All in all, Thanks Jim _______________________________________________ Kclug mailing list Kclug@kclug.org http://kclug.org/mailman/listinfo/kclug
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