databaseutforming

Databaseutforming, commonly translated as database design, is the discipline of planning and organizing data structures for a database system. It covers understanding requirements, selecting an appropriate data model, and defining schemas, constraints, and storage structures to support reliable data storage, efficient querying, and maintainability. The design process typically includes conceptual, logical, and physical design phases.

In conceptual design, the goal is to capture high-level data needs without implementation details, often using an entity-relationship model to identify entities, attributes, and relationships. Logical design maps the conceptual model to a specific data model, most often the relational model, specifying tables, columns, keys, and constraints. Normalization is used to reduce redundancy and improve data integrity, commonly to 3NF or BCNF, though selective denormalization may be applied to improve performance.

Physical design translates the logical schema into concrete storage considerations. This includes choosing data types, designing indexes, partitioning data, and outlining storage and access methods. Security, backup, recovery, and compliance requirements are also addressed. The physical design is driven by workload patterns, expected read/write access, and hardware capabilities.

Design goals emphasize data integrity, referential integrity, data independence, scalability, and ease of evolution. Relational and non-relational systems require different design approaches; relational designs focus on normalization and constraints, while non-relational designs emphasize schema flexibility. The outcome is a well-documented schema and data governance framework that supports reliable data management and future changes.