In a relational database approach, regardless of whether one is considering persisted data or transitory query results, almost everything is viewed as a logical table. Associations between these ...

Referential integrity (RI)is a method for ensuring the “correctness” of data within a DBMS. People tend to oversimplify RI, stating that it is merely the identification of relationships between ...

Database normalization is the cornerstone of database theory. Once a database is normalized, relationships between the data in multiple tables must be established. A hefty part of designing a ...

Which makes for a better primary key: natural data points or meaningless values? Database developers have strong opinions on this facet of primary key design. This article settles the debate once and ...