Physical design is the creation of the database with SQL statements.
During the physical design process, you convert the data gathered during the
logical design phase into a description of the physical database structure.
A complete physical
data model will include all the database artifacts required to create
relationships between tables or achieve performance goals, such as indexes,
constraint definitions, linking tables, partitioned tables or clusters.
Physical data model represents
how the model will be built in the database. A physical database model shows
all table structures, including column name, column data type, column
constraints, primary key, foreign key, and relationships between tables.
Features of a physical data model include:
- Specification all tables and columns.
- Foreign keys are used to identify
relationships between tables.
- Denormalization may occur based on user
requirements.
- Physical considerations may cause the physical
data model to be quite different from the logical data model.
- Physical data model will be different for
different RDBMS. For example, data type for a column may be different
between MySQL and SQL Server.
The steps for physical data model
design are as follows:
- Convert entities into tables.
- Convert relationships into foreign keys.
- Convert attributes into columns.
- Modify the physical data model based on
physical constraints / requirements.
Physical Design
Structures:
- Table spaces : A tablespace consists of one or more data files,
which are physical structures within the operating system you are using. A data
file is associated with only one tablespace. From a design perspective, table
spaces are containers for physical design structures.
- Tables and Partitioned Tables : Tables are the basic unit of data storage. They are
the container for the expected amount of raw data in your data warehouse. Using
partitioned tables instead of non-partitioned ones addresses the key problem of
supporting very large data volumes by allowing you to decompose them into
smaller and more manageable pieces.
- Views : A view is a tailored presentation of the data
contained in one or more tables or other views. A view takes the output of a
query and treats it as a table. Views do not require any space in the database.
- Integrity Constraints : Integrity constraints are used to enforce business
rules associated with your database and to prevent having invalid information
in the tables. Integrity constraints in data warehousing differ from
constraints in OLTP environments. In OLTP environments, they primarily prevent
the insertion of invalid data into a record, which is not a big problem in data
warehousing environments because accuracy has already been guaranteed.
- Indexes : Indexes are optional structures associated with
tables or clusters. In addition to the classical B-tree indexes, bitmap indexes
are very common in data warehousing environments.
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