Hi,

having quite some experience in programming (mostly C++), I'm just about
starting to dig into databases. So far, I found some useful help on the
web about database normalization, and after sketching some initial
thoughts w.r.t. the organization of my data on a sheet of paper, I just
started to design my database structure with the ER-Diagram editor of
the MySQL Workbench, which took me at least as far as being able to
define and visualize my database layout.

Unfortunately, the MySQL workbench seems to mostly lack documentation,
and even if it would have been documented quite well, I fear that I
would miss some basics to make much use of it. Thus, what I'm really
looking for is some ER-Diagram tutorial, maybe similar to an
UML-introduction for OO-Design. Can anyone give me some pointers to
either online-resources or good books in either English or German,
ideally, but not necessarily focusing on MySQL?

To give an example of what information I'm looking for, here are some
questions that I'm currently having:

- In the "edit table" window, what is the MySQL Workbench ER-Diagram
editor's "Indexes" tab being useful for, given the fact that primary
indexes may be tagged as primary index in the "Column" tab already and
foreign keys are listed in the "Foreign Keys" tab?

- What is the difference between an "Identifying" and a
"Non-Identifying" relationship?

Thanks for any advice,

Christof

On Jun 28, 9:03*am, Christof Warlich <cwarl... (AT) gmx (DOT) de> wrote:
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=identifying+and...lationship&l=1

Christof Warlich:

Hi Chris!

May I suggest you Google "ER Diagram Tutorial"? There are plenty of
those available.
For instance: http://www.getahead.uk.com/gw-er-diagram-tutorial.htm

Any attribute (field) may be assigned an index, which makes selecting
on such field faster. The DB engine wouldn't need to scan the whole
table on "select Postleitzahl from Adressentabelle where
Postleitzahl<2000" but it would use that index.

Identifying means, that the "1"-side of a 1:n relationship must exist.
In ER-drawing technique, an identifying relationship is a line, where a
non-identifying one is a dotted line.




--
Erick

Erick T. Barkhuis schrieb:
Hi Erick,

thanks for this. I did google a lot, but it sometimes helps a lot being
told of some places to find a needle within the haystick.

Cheers,

Chris