Strategies in Planning a Database

Strategies in Planning a Database

Steps in Planning a Database

1. Determine the purpose of your database.

• Know the information you want for your database and determine what subjects you need to store facts about (the tables) and what facts you need to store about each subject (the fields in the tables).

• Discuss your designed database to the person who will use it. Sketch out the reports you want to produce, and gather the forms you currently use to record you data.

2. Determine the tables you need in the database.

• The information gathered should be analyzed

Example: Information for Students’ Admission

Student no., student name, address, course, year/section, adviser

1232 Montana, Miley Jaguar St. Marikina City BS ComSci IV-B Mrs. Patria Vazques

1233 Guzman, Shaynee Pete St. Angeles City BS Psycho II-A Mr. Lobo Cruz

For this example, you may design your table and name it as menu table like the student information, year and section and its adviser. The above example is just an example only.

• Be sure that the table should not duplicate any information. Each table should contain information about one subject and know what field is need in the table.

3. Identify fields with unique values. In designation of a primary key, uniqueness must be guarantee.

Primary key is a field or a set of fields that identifies individual records in a unique way.

4. Re-examine what fields will go into your database. Define the Data type and properties so that the fields form an accurate description of types of data needed in the database.