Why Is Database Design so Important?
A good database design is important in ensuring consistent data, elimination of data redundancy, efficient execution of queries and high performance application. Taking the time to design a database saves time and frustration during development, and a well-designed database ensures ease of access and retrieval of information.
Database design is the structure a database uses to plan, store and manage data. Data consistency is achieved when a database is designed to store only useful and required data. The outline of the table allows data to be consistent. Implementation of primary keys and unique constraints ensures consistency in the stored data. Cascading also ensures data uniformity. Implementing cascading of parent and child tables ensures that only those child records with a valid parent record exist. A normalized database design eliminates data redundancy, which reduces unnecessarily large volumes of data. Duplication can be avoided by creating a table of possible values and using a key to refer to the value. Thus, when the value is altered, the change occurs only once in the primary table. Optimized relationships ensure efficient database performance. A well-designed database uses simpler queries and fast execution. Overall performance of a database is dependent on the design. A good database is designed in a way that allows for easy maintenance. Fixing minor breakdowns in a poorly designed database may damage stored procedures, views and functions.
