Tools and transformations—rigorous and otherwise—for practical database design

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Abstract
We describe the tools and theory of a comprehensive system for database design, and show how they work together to support multiple conceptual and logical design processes. The Database Design and Evaluation Workbench (DDEW) system uses a rigorous, information-content-preserving approach to schema transformation, but combines it with heuristics, guess work, and user interactions. The main contribution lies in illustrating how theory was adapted to a practical system, and how the consistency and power of a design system can be increased by use of theory. First, we explain why a design system needs multiple data models, and how implementation over a unified underlying model reduces redundancy and inconsistency. Second, we present a core set of small but fundamental algorithms that reaarange a schema without changing its information content. From these reusable components, we easily built larger tools and transformations that were still formally justified. Third, we describe heuristic tools that attempt to improve a schema, often by adding missing information. In these tools, unreliable techniques such as normalization and relationship inference are bolstered by system-guided user interactions to remove errors. We present a rigorous criterion for identifying unnecessary relationships, and discuss an interactive view integrator. Last, we examine the relevance of database theory to building these practically motivated tools and contrast the paradigms of system builders with those of theoreticians.

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