Conceptual database design : an entity-relationship approach

This comprehensive book is written to meet the needs of database designers, programmers, and end-users interested in maximizing the power of conceptual and logical design using the entity-relationship approach. The authors, internationally know experts in the field, thoroughly examine conceptual design, functional analysis, and logical design with an emphasis on issues related to the user and the application. The text presents a unique step-by-step design methodology that incorporates state-of-the art software engineering and database design techniques and includes a large, realistic case study that illustrates key concepts. A capstone chapter, written by Dr. David Reiner, provides a survey of database design tools including basic tools for conceptual and logical design and current commercial database design and CASE Tools. Features Teaches how to conceptualize, design, reverse engineer, or modify large relational, network, or hierchical database systems. Introduces and explains concepts and their implementations using a step-by-step methodology that is accessible to database designers, end-users, and application programmers. Emphasizes the entity-relationship model throughout, including coverage of generalization hierarchies, set-subset relationships, and a variety of semantic constraints. Integrates functional analysis with data analysis to show how to create an integrated database environment for a variety of reasons. Examines reverse mapping into E-R schema for the relational, network, and hierarchical models. Illustrates how to implement design techniques through a large, realistic case study/application. Provides an up-to-date survey and analysis of existing database design tools. 0805302441B04062001 This database design book provides the reader with a unique methodology for the conceptual and logical design of databases. A step-by-step method is given for developing a conceptual structure for large databases with multiple users. Additionally, the authors provide an up-to-date survey and analysis of existing database design tools. The last two decades have been characterized by a tremendous growth in the number and importance of database applications.