Mike Sherrill 'Catcall'

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location United States
age 57
visits member for 2 years, 2 months
seen 23 hours ago
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Long-time database design and software development consultant. My clients included evetrything from Fortune 100 companies to non-profits and mom-and-pop companies. I've worked with SQL databases since 1985. I'm a database generalist; I'm comfortable with every modern SQL dbms. My home server runs a half-dozen different database management systems. I test most of my answers under more than one of them.

I've also developed relational models for implementation in non-SQL environments, like Lotus Notes and plain C++ code.

I'm known for frequently saying

  • ID numbers have nothing to do with normalization.
  • Everything you know about state codes is wrong.
  • Table names, column names, etc., are your database's API.
  • Natural keys reduce the number of joins, and often improve performance.
  • 5NF is your friend.
  • Don't assume. Test.

106 Tags

name votes
128
database-design × 33
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database-recommendation × 4
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sql-server-2008 × 6
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ms-access × 4
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postgresql × 35
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datatypes × 5
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sqlite × 3
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migration × 2
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sql × 23
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oracle × 4
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sql-server-2005 × 3
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innodb × 2
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sql-server × 17
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oracle-11g-r2 × 3
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truncate × 2
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postgresql-9.1 × 2
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normalization × 13
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index-tuning × 2
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unique-key × 2
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linux
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mysql × 17
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performance × 5
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rdbms
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count
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foreign-key × 8
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index × 5
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order-by
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database-tuning
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primary-key × 7
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disk-space × 3
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query × 2
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duplication
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relational × 5
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database-administration × 3
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view × 2
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execution-plan
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schema × 5
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optimization × 3
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standards
4
indexed-view
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best-practices × 6
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syntax × 3
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naming-convention
4
statistics
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database-agnostic × 3
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timestamp × 2
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constraint
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t-sql
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join × 6
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interview-question
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composite-types
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scaling
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