Archive - Minimal Modeling

Modeling legal guardianship

Some notes on either/or/or in logical modeling.

Apr 3 •

Alexey Makhotkin

March 2024

"Documenting your database using Minimal Modeling" [video]

Hello all, Christian has uploaded the recording of my talk from 2024-02-07: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DPQsSwflS0 (38 minutes, Q&A was not…

Mar 24 •

Alexey Makhotkin

February 2024

Designing database for Google Calendar, drafts

In the past couple of months I’ve been working on a longer text called “Database Design for Google Calendar”. It illustrates the approach from the…

Feb 18 •

Alexey Makhotkin

January 2024

Minimal Modeling: processes and deliverables

A diagram of Minimal Modeling: textual descriptions → logical model → physical database schema → logical model → narratives and diagrams.

Jan 9 •

Alexey Makhotkin

December 2023

Sentinel-free schemas: a thought experiment

We systematically design a database schema that does not use NULLs and sentinel values. We look at the consequences of this design decisions and provide…

Dec 20, 2023 •

Alexey Makhotkin

Designing database for Google Calendar, pt. I

Here is the first post in new “Designing database for Google Calendar” series. We show how the method explained in the book works in practice, for a…

Dec 15, 2023 •

Alexey Makhotkin

November 2023

Many explanations of JOIN are wrong, and people get confused

Most common explanations of JOIN are incomplete and build the wrong mental model. As the result, people get confused. In this post we discuss the…

Nov 25, 2023 •

Alexey Makhotkin

I'm working on a book: “Database Design with Minimal Modeling”.

Nov 21, 2023 •

Alexey Makhotkin

An algebraic curiosity

There is one non-1NF relation in every real-world database, no matter how well designed.

Nov 18, 2023 •

Alexey Makhotkin

October 2023

Data modeling brain dump, vol. I

Recently I’ve been posting some Twitter threads with daily braindumps on random data-related topics. Here is the first volume: 12 threads. Each thread…

Oct 12, 2023 •

Alexey Makhotkin

September 2023

Currencies, countries, and languages: the well-known anchors

I’d like to talk a little bit about how currencies, countries and languages are treated in databases, and also show how they could be represented in…

Sep 21, 2023 •

Alexey Makhotkin

The scope of the data modeling book

Here is the outline I have so far: basic logical model; either/or/or data; polymorphic data; template repetitions; basic physical model; secondary data.

Sep 7, 2023 •

Alexey Makhotkin

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