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Semi-Structured Database Design

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Encyclopedia of Database Systems
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Synonyms

XML Database Design

Definition

From a requirements document, a database designer distills the real world constraints and designs a database schema. While the design process for structured data is well defined, the design process for semi-structured data is not as well understood. What is a “good” design for semi-structured databases that captures real world constraints, prevents data redundancy and update anomalies, and allows typical queries to execute quickly?

Historical Background

There was a lot of research into the design of relational databases in the 1970s, and it was found that the design of relational databases involves a trade off between the speed of execution of queries and the updating anomalies caused by maintaining redundant data when updates occur. During logical schema design normalization algorithms are used to reduce redundancy, and during physical design to improve performance some redundancy may be reintroduced, views can be created over the schema, and...

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Dobbie, G., Ling, T.W. (2009). Semi-Structured Database Design. In: LIU, L., ÖZSU, M.T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Database Systems. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-39940-9_338

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