The Importance of a Properly Constructed Database

A properly constructed database as the title suggests is, of course very important. But I’m sure you’d be hard pressed to find someone who believes a poorly constructed database is good, so it’s probably best to delve into why it’s important and the consequences for not creating a database properly in the beginning. Every (good) Microsoft Access Developer or Consultant should be able to give you a myriad of reasons for creating a database correctly from the beginning, a good MS Access Database Developer should also follow some basic steps whenever they create a database to ensure it is being created properly.

To go into more detail, no good database ever started without a basic plan being formed beforehand. The best first step is to decide what exactly the database is going to do in the beginning, it might seem obvious but many people want to jump straight into making the database and forget to sit down and really think about what the purpose of the database actually is, although enthusiasm should be applauded when it comes to making databases as it can be a frustrating experience, it’s misdirected energy if there is no set plan or purpose. Making up a database as you go along becomes the database equivalent of the Titanic sinking, and benefits no one. A cohesive plan also prevents a lot of bad database design decisions and mistakes, like accidental or preventable data redundancy, and the associated negatives that come with redundancy like bigger and slower databases. One of the marks of an excellent MS Access Database Developer is a lack of data redundancies in their databases and it really shows in comparison to a database bloated through redundancies.

The proper use of primary keys is another sign of good database design; a primary key has to be a unique identifier for each record, for example, although at first, a last and first name might be a good indicator for uniqueness but the chances of someone having the same first and last name is too great, think of all the John Smiths out there which would clearly break the database. So some thought has to go into assigning or creating a primary key for each table. Of course that is second nature to any good MS Access database developer or consultant, but to the uninitiated among us considerations such as these might be overlooked, leading to frustration, broken databases and depending on how much stock you put into the database, broken dreams.