Tag: Data Modeling
How to Migrate Your Database
Migrating a database between two different schemas involves serious risks to data integrity and application availability. Read this article to learn data migration best practices and ensure satisfactory results.
Database schemas are constantly evolving. This evolution can be a consequence of many reasons, including version changes in an application that uses the database, refactoring processes to improve database design, or the integration of different applications.
As database designers, we commonly face the challenge of migrating a database to a new schema.
How to Draw an Entity-Relationship Diagram
Curious about how to create an ER diagram (entity-relationship diagram or ERD) during the database design phase? We’ll explain how to understand and create ER diagrams and explore what ERD/database modeling tools can make the process quicker and easier.
An entity-relationship diagram can be considered the blueprint of a database. We use entity-relationship diagrams when we are modeling data stored (or that will be stored) in a database. ER diagrams allow discussions of requirements, such as what information needs to be stored, what aspects of the information need to be secured, and how the information is linked together.
Top 12 Database Design Principles in 2023
A well-designed data model must support database integrity, performance, scalability, and security. To achieve these qualities, pay attention to the top 12 database design principles explained in this guide.
Database design principles are essential to creating efficient, reliable, and scalable databases. A database created following these fundamental design principles ensures that its data will be stored in it in an organized and structured manner. It will facilitate database administration and allow users to obtain accurate results.
What Is the Star Schema Data Model? An Explanation with 3 Examples
In this article, we will talk about the star schema data model. When should you use this to structure your data? What are its advantages over other data schemas? We’ll answer these questions and more in this article.
What Is a Star Schema? The star schema is a popular approach for designing data warehousing and business intelligence data models. It uses dimensional modeling; in other words, it utilizes dimension tables with descriptive attributes that provide context for the measures in the fact table.
Top 10 Data Engineering Tools
Want to find out about the role of data engineers and data engineering? What are the top data engineering tools these professionals use? Read on to explore more.
Data engineers create pipelines to facilitate an organization's data analytics by collecting, merging, and transforming data. They create an infrastructure for modern data analytics.
Data engineers' work can be categorized into various sets of requirements that they must fulfill in building the pipeline.
Top 11 Best Practices for Database Design
What are the most important commandments of database design? Find out in this article! Make sure that every one of your designs meets these set of best practices for database design and your database will always run smoothly and swiftly.
To become a database designer, you must invest a lot of time and effort. To learn database design, you must take courses, get a degree, read books, keep up with the latest trends, and practice a lot.
Create an Online Data Model in 4 Steps
Learn how to use four simple steps and a data modeling tool to create a database diagram online.
Creating database diagrams (aka data modeling) is an essential part of modern database development projects. A good data model is to a database what a strong foundation is to a skyscraper. Due to the availability of modern data modeling tools, this has become a straightforward process.
What Is Data Modeling? Data modeling is the process of identifying and graphically representing the data elements and entities along with their attributes, relationships, operations, etc.
What Is a Database Schema?
A database schema is used to define the structure of the tables and the relationships among them, the data types, and the constraints in a relational database. Sometimes, the word schema is synonymous with the entire database. In this article, we go through the concepts that define a database schema and how these concepts are represented in Vertabelo.
A database schema is the logical ordering and organizing of the elements and the data in a database.
Top 7 Database Schema Design Tools
Database schema design tools are essential in your toolkit if you are a database professional. Your database development journey begins with these tools. Let's read on to find out the top database schema design tools.
This article lists my top database schema design tools with their key features. These tools are important since we start our database development journey with data modeling using a database design tool.
Data modeling is a step-by-step process of arranging data entities in an information system, starting from concepts up to building your physical database.
Where to Find Database Diagram Examples
This article discusses various sources of database model examples you can use as a starting point for your data models.
Having a variety of database diagram examples on hand is very useful. This is true whether you are starting your career in database design or consider yourself a seasoned database professional.
It is a good idea to use existing database model examples as a starting point, rather than to try to reinvent the wheel.
5 Data Modeling Techniques
Different scenarios call for different data modeling techniques for the greatest benefit. Knowing what type of data model to create is very important. Applying the right technique saves you a lot of headaches and avoids common errors. We go into a bit of detail about what these techniques are and how they are applied.
What Is Data Modeling? Data modeling involves building a diagram that represents the data structure to support a new software application.
Using Text Notes in Data Modeling
Including notes in your data model improves communication, clarity, and ultimately productivity. We look at several ways to use notes in the Vertabelo data modeler.
In data modeling, it’s often vital to document essential parts by leaving messages for team members or creating a list of tasks that need to be done in a particular part of the model. To achieve this goal, Vertabelo provides the Notes feature. This feature allows you to place small annotations in the model without affecting its structure.
The Best Data Modeling Books
Most of the best books on data modeling were originally written decades ago. But the concepts they discuss are more relevant than ever; in today’s business world, most decisions are made on the basis of well-modeled data repositories.
With the rise of NoSQL databases, unstructured information, and Big Data repositories (where quantity seems to be more important than quality), you might think that data modeling is an archaic discipline. That notion can be maintained until inconsistent data, anomalies, and inaccurate reports start to pop up everywhere and you begin losing confidence in your data.
The Benefits of Data Modeling
Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can model today. Every minute you spend building and keeping your data model up to date means hours saved in the future.
In my early days as a database designer, I thought data modeling was an unnecessary step that only delayed the time to get the databases up and running. I thought that because, in most cases, databases started with just a few entities – 6 or 7, tops.
What Is Data Modeling?
Have you ever wondered how data modeling works?
Data modeling is the process of creating a data model. A data model can be thought of as a blueprint that describes the structure and internal relationships in a database. It is meant to demonstrate how objects within the database interact with each other to fulfill the prescribed business logic.
Since relational databases are composed of tables, a data model is a diagram that illustrates the relationship between these tables.
Lessons I’ve Learned from Years of Data Modeling
With age comes wisdom. Take it from someone who has spent a few decades dealing with databases, data models, IT guys, users, and software projects.
“The greatest teacher failure is”, Master Yoda said. Decades of making mistakes with databases and data models – and learning from these mistakes – has proved to me that he was right. Yoda also said: “Always pass on what you have learned”. So here I am, passing on some of the lessons I’ve learned from tripping many times over the same data modeling stones.
Why Do You Need Data Modeling?
You need data modeling to save yourself or your organization lots of money, hours, and issues. Read on to find out how data models do its magic.
Data modeling is the process of creating a conceptual view of the information a database contains or should contain. As a result of this process, a data model is created, giving form to data objects (all those entities for which information is to be stored), the associations or relationships among them, and rules or restrictions that govern the information that enters the database.
Top 19 Database Modeling Interview Questions
Do you have a database modeling interview coming up? Make sure to prepare to give yourself the best chance of getting the job! Find out what you’ll be asked in addition to “What are your strengths and weaknesses?” and “Where do you see yourself in five years?”
So, you’re applying for a data modeling position...congratulations! It is a challenging job that involves great responsibility. Data modelers create a solid foundation for the information systems that manage the vital data of an organization.
Questions to Ask Business Users When Creating a Data Model
Data modeling is the process of creating a structure to store data. Database modeling creates a model of your database; it captures information about the data that must be stored for an application. Applications are tools that implement some sort of business logic, so if we are creating a model of the data required by some application, then data modeling must start with collecting business requirements.
If you're unsure about the steps involved in the database design process, I refer you to other articles like the description of database design steps and tips for better database design.
How to Model Inheritance in a Database
Three ways to implement inheritance in a database using the Vertabelo data modeler.
Inheritance is a common modeling technique used in modern software development. In data modeling, you can use inheritance in the logical model creation process. However, implementing inheritance in a physical database model is not straightforward; standard SQL does not provide inheritance statements for physical implementation.
In this article, we will cover three basic strategies used to implement inheritance in a relational database.
What Is a One-to-One Relationship in a Database?
What is a one-to-one relationship in data modeling? How do you implement this relationship in a database? The examples in this article will answer these questions.
There are three types of relationships between entities (tables) in data modeling:
One-to-many relationships (also denoted as 1:M). Many-to-many relationships (M:N). One-to-one relationships (1:1). The most common type of relationship is a one-to-many relationship, where a record in one entity can be referenced by multiple records in another entity.
How to Generate a Physical Diagram from a Logical Diagram in Vertabelo
Have you finished preparing your logical data model in Vertabelo? Awesome! In this article, we'll show you how to generate the physical data model from the logical model in Vertabelo. It’s just a few clicks away. Ready? Let's dive into it.
Quick Intro In this article, we'll deal with a slightly modified version of Microsoft's Northwind Database. We often use it in our LearnSQL courses, such as Customer Behavior Analysis in SQL.
What Is a One-to-Many Relationship in a Database? An Explanation with Examples
One-to-many relationships are one of the most common database relationships. If you want to learn when and how to use one-to-many relationships, then this article is a great starting point.
You will surely use one-to-many relationships to store information in any relational database, whether you are designing enterprise-level software or just creating a simple database to keep track of your uncle’s stamp collection.
A Brief Introduction to the Relational Model Relational databases are a core component of any modern transactional application.
What Is a Many-to-Many Relationship in a Database? An Explanation with Three Examples
What is a many-to-many relationship in database modeling? How do you implement this relationship in a database? The examples in this article will answer these questions.
Many-to-many relationships are probably the trickiest relationships to show in a database. So, my first step in this article will be to explain what they are. Then I’ll move on to giving you several examples of many-to-many relationships, keeping them as close to real life as possible.
Common ER Diagram Mistakes
Get to know the ER (Entity Relationship) diagram, its parts, and what often goes wrong when creating it.
Have you ever created a relational database model? Or maybe you're trying to create your first one? You know (or you'll soon find out) that translating real-world problems to database logic can sometimes be quite difficult.
One of the tools that might help you is the ER diagram. Common database design wisdom holds that the better your ER diagram, the easier it will be to build the database model.
Integrated Transport Data Model
Integrated transport is something we often hear about on the internet or in the news. While it’s not something new, it’s definitely an ongoing process, with constant changes being implemented. Today, we’ll take a look at a data model that could handle zone, passenger, and ticket info.
Let’s dig right into our integrated transport data model, starting with the idea behind it all.
Idea Integrating transportation is necessary to maximize its efficiency and, for customers, its easy use.
Payroll Data Model
A payroll data model allows you to easily calculate your employees’ salary. How does this model work?
No matter whether you’re running a small or large company, you need some kind of payroll solution. That’s where a payroll application comes in handy. Plus, the bigger the company, the harder it gets to handle the employees' salary calculations; here, a payroll application becomes a necessity. To help you understand all the data required for such an application, we’ll walk you through a related data model.
911/112: An Emergency Call Service Data Model
Calling an emergency number like 911 or 112 is not something we’re looking forward to, but we’re glad to have it when we need it! On the other end of the line, it’s a stressful job, and there’s little room for mistakes. Everything needs to work perfectly.
Today, we’ll take a look at the data model an emergency service could use to process and respond to incoming calls.
Track Signals with a Signal Processing Data Model
Cameras, revolving doors, elevators, temperature sensors, alarms – all of these devices produce a large number of interconnected signals that are related to events happening around us. Now imagine you’re the person who needs to track statuses, produce real-time reports, and make predictions based on all this signal data. To do this, you’d first need to store that data. A data model that supports such signal processing is the topic of today’s article.
Designing a Database for a Recruitment System
Do you want to learn how to design a database system and map a business process to a data model? Then this post is for you. In this article, you’ll see how to design a simple database schema for a recruitment company. After reading this tutorial, you will be able to understand how database schemas are designed for real-world applications. The Recruitment System Business Process Before designing any database or data model, it is imperative to understand the basic business process for that system.
The Important Dates Data Model
Are you forgetting something? A data model to help you remember important dates – before they happen.
Have you ever forgotten an important date – your mom’s birthday or your anniversary? Or that you’re giving a lecture? Yup, things like that happen in real life. Maybe not to all of us, but to some of us (including me), they certainly do. To prevent such disasters, we’ll create a data model you could use as the background for an application that will notify you right on time.
Automobile Repair Shop Data Model
Running an automobile/car repair shop is a really complex business. You’ll need to make appointments while some customers will drive in and you don’t want to have them wait for hours. Also, you’ll need to organize employees, track repairs, materials, charge customers, etc. You’ll definitely need an IT solution and, of course, a data model in the background. Today we’ll talk about one such model.
The Idea I’ve already mentioned that this business model is really complex.
The Smart Home Data Model
Smart homes used to be strictly in the future; now they are a reality. Most of us have heard about them, but they are not so widespread as they will be in the near future. Managing your home the ‘smart’ way will definitely produce a lot of data. Today, we’ll analyze a data model we could use to store smart home data. The Data Model When you think of a smart home, you probably think of remotely locking and unlocking your home, activating alarms, lights, or cameras from your phone, having thermometers that automatically manage your heating and cooling, etc.
The 9 Most Common Database Design Errors
You’ve probably made some of these mistakes when you were starting your database design career. Maybe you’re still making them, or you’ll make some in the future. We can’t go back in time and help you undo your errors, but we can save you from some future (or present) headaches. Reading this article might save you many hours spent fixing design and code problems, so let’s dive in. I’ve split the list of errors into two main groups: those that are non-technical in nature and those that are strictly technical.
Facts about Facts: Organizing Fact Tables in Data Warehouse Systems
The process of defining your data warehousing system (DWH) has started. You’ve outlined the relevant dimension tables, which tie to the business requirements. These tables define what we weigh, observe and scale. Now we need to define how we measure. Fact tables are where we store these measurements. They hold business data that can be aggregated across dimension combinations. But the fact is that fact tables are not so easily described – they have flavors of their own.
Beverly Hills 90210 and ZIP+4: Handling Addresses in Data Models
In my last post, I wrote about ensuring that your data model properly handles global information: numbers, currencies, phone numbers, addresses, dates, and time zones, among other things. However, I’ve realized that many example data models have exactly the “self-centric” or “Amero-centric” approach that I cautioned against. As an American living abroad (for almost 30 years now), I often find that people make too many assumptions about the universality of what they know.
