Database Designer

Database Designer

Normalization

First Normal Form (1NF)

• Atomic values in each column (no comma-separated lists)
• Unique column names, uniform data types
• No duplicate rows

-- ✗ multiple values in one column
CREATE TABLE contacts (id INT PRIMARY KEY, phones VARCHAR(200)); -- "123, 456"

-- ✓ separate table
CREATE TABLE contact_phones (
    id INT PRIMARY KEY,
    contact_id INT REFERENCES contacts(id),
    phone_number VARCHAR(20)
);

Second Normal Form (2NF)

• Satisfies 1NF
• No partial dependencies on composite keys

Third Normal Form (3NF)

• Satisfies 2NF
• No transitive dependencies (non-key → non-key)

When to Denormalize

Index Strategies

B-Tree (Default)

Best for: range queries, sorting, equality. Most selective columns first in composite indexes.

-- Composite: match query WHERE + ORDER pattern
CREATE INDEX idx_task_status_date ON tasks (status, created_date, priority DESC);

Covering Index

-- Avoid table lookups by including extra columns
CREATE INDEX idx_user_email_cover ON users (email) INCLUDE (first_name, last_name, status);

Partial Index

-- Index only relevant subset
CREATE INDEX idx_active_users ON users (email) WHERE status = 'active';
CREATE INDEX idx_recent_orders ON orders (customer_id, created_at)
    WHERE created_at > CURRENT_DATE - INTERVAL '30 days';

Index Selection Checklist

1. Identify WHERE clause columns
2. Most selective column first
3. Consider JOIN conditions
4. Include ORDER BY columns if possible
5. Check for existing overlapping indexes

Data Modeling Patterns

Star Schema (Warehousing)

CREATE TABLE sales_facts (
    sale_id BIGINT PRIMARY KEY,
    product_id INT REFERENCES products(id),
    customer_id INT REFERENCES customers(id),
    date_id INT REFERENCES date_dimension(id),
    quantity INT, total_amount DECIMAL(10,2)
);

JSON Document Model

CREATE TABLE documents (
    id UUID PRIMARY KEY,
    document_type VARCHAR(50),
    data JSONB,
    created_at TIMESTAMP DEFAULT NOW()
);
CREATE INDEX idx_doc_user ON documents USING GIN ((data->>'user_id'));

Vector Data Model (pgvector)

-- Requires: CREATE EXTENSION IF NOT EXISTS vector;
CREATE TABLE embeddings (
    id UUID PRIMARY KEY DEFAULT gen_random_uuid(),
    content TEXT NOT NULL,
    embedding vector(1536),           -- OpenAI ada-002 dimension
    metadata JSONB DEFAULT '{}',
    created_at TIMESTAMPTZ DEFAULT NOW()
);

-- HNSW index: best for recall + speed (PG 16+ with pgvector 0.7+)
CREATE INDEX idx_embeddings_hnsw ON embeddings
    USING hnsw (embedding vector_cosine_ops)
    WITH (m = 16, ef_construction = 64);

-- IVFFlat index: faster build, lower recall
CREATE INDEX idx_embeddings_ivf ON embeddings
    USING ivfflat (embedding vector_cosine_ops)
    WITH (lists = 100);

-- Similarity search
SELECT id, content, 1 - (embedding <=> $1::vector) AS similarity
FROM embeddings
ORDER BY embedding <=> $1::vector
LIMIT 10;

Hierarchical Data

-- Materialized path pattern
CREATE TABLE categories (
    id INT PRIMARY KEY, name VARCHAR(100),
    parent_id INT REFERENCES categories(id),
    path VARCHAR(500)  -- "/1/5/12/"
);

Virtual Generated Columns (PG 12+)

-- Computed column stored on disk (STORED) or computed on read (VIRTUAL, PG 18+)
CREATE TABLE orders (
    id BIGINT GENERATED ALWAYS AS IDENTITY PRIMARY KEY,
    quantity INT NOT NULL,
    unit_price NUMERIC(10,2) NOT NULL,
    total NUMERIC(10,2) GENERATED ALWAYS AS (quantity * unit_price) STORED
);

-- PG 18+: VIRTUAL generated columns (no storage cost)
ALTER TABLE users ADD COLUMN display_name TEXT
    GENERATED ALWAYS AS (first_name || ' ' || last_name) VIRTUAL;

Migration Strategies

Zero-Downtime (Expand-Contract)

Phase 1 — Expand:

ALTER TABLE users ADD COLUMN new_email VARCHAR(255);
-- Backfill in batches
UPDATE users SET new_email = email WHERE id BETWEEN 1 AND 1000;
-- Add constraints after backfill
ALTER TABLE users ADD CONSTRAINT users_new_email_unique UNIQUE (new_email);

Phase 2 — Contract:

-- After app updated to use new column:
ALTER TABLE users DROP COLUMN email;
ALTER TABLE users RENAME COLUMN new_email TO email;

Partitioning

Range (by date)

CREATE TABLE sales_2024 PARTITION OF sales
    FOR VALUES FROM ('2024-01-01') TO ('2025-01-01');

Hash (by user)

CREATE TABLE user_data_0 PARTITION OF user_data
    FOR VALUES WITH (MODULUS 4, REMAINDER 0);

Database Selection Guide

Connection Management

• Pool size: CPU cores × 2 + effective spindle count
• Connection lifetime: Rotate to prevent resource leaks
• Read replicas: Route reads to replicas, writes to primary
• Consistent reads: Route to primary when needed (e.g., after insert)

ID Type Recommendation

-- UUIDv7 via pg_uuidv7 extension (PG 13+)
CREATE EXTENSION IF NOT EXISTS pg_uuidv7;
CREATE TABLE events (
    id UUID PRIMARY KEY DEFAULT uuid_generate_v7(),
    name TEXT NOT NULL
);

Design Checklist

• Normalization appropriate for workload (normalize first, denormalize with evidence)
• Indexes cover common query patterns
• No redundant or overlapping indexes
• Foreign keys defined for all relationships
• Migration strategy supports zero-downtime
• Partitioning considered for tables >10M rows
• Connection pooling configured
• UUIDv7 or bigint identity for primary keys (avoid UUIDv4 for new tables)
• Vector columns use HNSW indexes when recall matters