database-schema-design

Database Schema Design

Table of Contents

• Overview
• When to Use
• Quick Start
• Reference Guides
• Best Practices

Overview

Design scalable, normalized database schemas with proper relationships, constraints, and data types. Includes normalization techniques, relationship patterns, and constraint strategies.

When to Use

• New database schema design
• Data model planning
• Table structure definition
• Relationship design (1:1, 1:N, N:N)
• Normalization analysis
• Constraint and trigger planning
• Performance optimization at schema level

Quick Start

PostgreSQL - Eliminate Repeating Groups:

-- NOT 1NF: repeating group in single column
CREATE TABLE orders_bad (
  id UUID PRIMARY KEY,
  customer_name VARCHAR(255),
  product_ids VARCHAR(255)  -- "1,2,3" - repeating group
);

-- 1NF: separate table for repeating data
CREATE TABLE orders (
  id UUID PRIMARY KEY,
  customer_name VARCHAR(255),
  created_at TIMESTAMP DEFAULT NOW()
);

CREATE TABLE order_items (
  id UUID PRIMARY KEY,
  order_id UUID NOT NULL,
  product_id UUID NOT NULL,
  quantity INTEGER NOT NULL,
  FOREIGN KEY (order_id) REFERENCES orders(id) ON DELETE CASCADE
);

Reference Guides

Detailed implementations in the references/ directory:

Guide	Contents
First Normal Form (1NF)	First Normal Form (1NF)
Second Normal Form (2NF)	Second Normal Form (2NF)
Third Normal Form (3NF)	Third Normal Form (3NF)
Entity-Relationship Patterns	Entity-Relationship Patterns

Best Practices

✅ DO

• Follow established patterns and conventions
• Write clean, maintainable code
• Add appropriate documentation
• Test thoroughly before deploying

❌ DON'T

• Skip testing or validation
• Ignore error handling
• Hard-code configuration values