Principles of relational database design
Origins
Simply put a database is a structured body of related information. The software used to manage and
manipulate that structured information is called a DBMS (Database Management System). Perhaps the most important aspect of database design is the planning. Then, the a very important aspect of it's use is timely and accurate data.

E.F. Codd is known as the originator of the relational database model.  It is based on branches of mathematics called set theory and predicate logic.  Essentially, it s a list of unordered tables that can be manipulated and combined.  The term "relational" is often thought to come from relating tables together, but historically it had to do with what Codd called relations found in related sets of information (what we now refer to as tables).  

Nowadays, we see relational databases as a set of tables that are made up of rows and columns, much like you might think of an Excel spreadsheet looking.  The rows (data sets - sets of data) and columns (fields - data types) in various tables can be queried and linked together via related fields that can be "tied together" from the distinct tables.

Relational database example

When designing a database, you have to make decisions regarding how best to take some system in the real world and model it in a database. This consists of deciding which tables to create, what columns they will contain, as well as the relationships between the tables. While it would be nice if this process was totally intuitive and obvious, or even better automated, this is simply not the case. A well-designed database takes time and effort to conceive, build and refine.

Some questions to ask ourselves when designing a database:

What information needs to be stored or what things or entities do we need to store information about?
What questions will we need to ask of the database?
Things to consider:

Minimizing redundancy without loss of database
Relevance of retaining historic databases (for archival, etc)
Likelihood of anomalies

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Peruse the open source (free and open access) book Database Design Second Edition by Adrienne Watt at https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/BookDetail.aspx?bookId=354 (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. 

**As a person new to databases, their development, and their use, if you could send her a list of ten items (in sentence or multiple sentence format for each) that caught your attention in the book as potentially important to relational database design, what would they be?   You can also opt to come up with some questions you would ask her if you could if you would prefer for some of your ten items.** 

Post your list of ten items here and then respond to the lists of at least two other students in an academic and thoughtful way that contributes to the conversation (things like "great post" and "I agree!" don't count)