tailieunhanh - Apress - Pro SQL Server 2008 Relational Database Design and Implementation (2008)02

Apress - Pro SQL Server 2008 Relational Database Design and Implementation (2008)02 | xiv CONTENTS Character char length .619 varchar length .620 varchar max .621 Unicode Character Strings nchar nvarchar nvarchar max Binary binary length .623 varbinary length .624 varbinary max .624 Other rowversion . timestamp .625 Not Simply Scalar Foreword Database design is a passion that Louis and I share. This fall I will be fortunate to share a stage with my friend Louis Davidson. We re copresenting at DevLink in Louis s hometown of Nashville and then again at PASS in Seattle. Both times we ll discuss debate and celebrate the topic of database design and how critical it is for any datacentric application. Database design is part science and part art. There s a science to normalization but determining the scope of the entity is an art form best learned from working with a broad repertoire of databases. There s a simple beauty to an elegant solution. Louis is more than an author or database designer Louis is a master artisan and in this book you ll discover hidden within the words a call to improve your craft to sculpt databases that stand the test of time and to create virtual worlds of data that enable developers to play their best game. Database design is the foundation of every datacentric application. An elegant database design makes the data obvious and easy to query and sets up the developer for success with efficient setbased queries. But no amount of code can compensate for a poor database design or add features missing from the database. No role is more critical to any datacentric application than the role of the data modeler. User interfaces come and go but data lasts for generations of application languages and today s database schema errors will be cursed by programmers not yet born using languages and tools not yet invented. It s worth spending a little extra time to polish your database design .