Challenges

1. See if you can locate ER diagrams for data you work with every day. (Check with your firm's CIS department.) Examine these documents and see if you can make sense of them.

2. Examine a database you use regularly. Determine if it follows the requirements stated in this chapter for a well-designed data structure. If not, explain what might be wrong with the data structure and how it could be corrected.

3. Diagram an improved data structure for the database you examined in the last question. Create the required tables in SQL and populate them with sample data.

4. Design a database for data you use every day. (Be warned, most data problems are a LOT more complex than they first appear.) Create a data diagram, then build the tables and populate with sample data.