Andy Oppel - Data Modeling

Data Modeling A Beginners Guide

Andrew J. (Andy) Oppel is a proud graduate of The Boys Latin School of Maryland and of Transylvania University (Lexington, Kentucky), where he earned a BA in computer science in 1974. Since then, he has been continuously employed in a wide variety of information technology positions, including programmer, programmer/analyst, systems architect, project manager, senior database administrator, database group manager, consultant, database designer, data modeler, and data architect. In addition, he has served as a part-time instructor with the University of California, Berkeley, Extension for more than 25 years and received the Honored Instructor Award for the year 2000. His teaching work included developing three courses for UC Extension, Concepts of Database Management Systems, Introduction to Relational Database Management Systems, and Data Modeling and Database Design. He also earned his Oracle 9i Database Associate certification in 2003. He is currently employed as a senior data modeler for Blue Shield of California. In addition to computer systems, Andy enjoys music (guitar and vocals), amateur radio, and soccer (Referee Instructor, US Soccer).

Andy has designed and implemented hundreds of databases for a wide range of applications, including medical research, banking, insurance, apparel manufacturing, telecommunications, wireless communications, and human resources. He is the author of Databases Demystified (McGraw-Hill Professional, 2004), SQL Demystified (McGraw-Hill Professional, 2005) and Databases: A Beginners Guide (McGraw-Hill Professional, 2009); and he is co-author of SQL: A Beginners Guide, Third Edition (McGraw-Hill Professional, 2008), and SQL: The Complete Reference, Third Edition (McGraw-Hill Professional, 2009). His database product experience includes IMS, DB2, Sybase ASE, Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Access, MySQL, and Oracle (versions 7, 8, 8i, 9i, and 10g).

If you have any comments, please contact Andy at andy@andyoppel.com.

Todd Meister has been developing using Microsoft technologies for over ten years. He has been a technical editor on over 50 titles ranging from SQL Server to the .NET Framework. Besides performing technical editing of titles, he serves as Assistant Director for Computing Services at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. He lives in central Indiana with his wife, Kimberly, and their four talented children.

Andy Oppel

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To the memory of my Aunt Norma, one of the
strongest and kindest people I have ever known.

My thanks to all the people involved in the development of Data Modeling: A Beginners Guide. First, the editors and staff at McGraw-Hill, many of whom I do not know by name, provided untold hours of support for this project. Thanks to editorial director Wendy Rinaldi for the inspiration to write this book and for being so supportive when so many of lifes demands caught up with me at the same time. And thanks to editorial supervisor Janet Walden for all the useful comments throughout the editing process, and to acquisitions coordinator Joya Anthony for keeping the processes moving. A special thanks to technical editor Todd Meister for all his inputit really helped to make this a better book. And my hat is off to copy editors Jan Jue and Robert Campbell for their consistency and attention to detail. Thanks to project manager Harleen Chopra and all the people at Glyph International who worked on the production of the book. Finally, thanks to my family for their understanding and support, especially during those times when I had to hide away in my office to write or create art files.