Book Image

Data Modeling with Snowflake

By : Serge Gershkovich
5 (2)
Book Image

Data Modeling with Snowflake

5 (2)
By: Serge Gershkovich

Overview of this book

The Snowflake Data Cloud is one of the fastest-growing platforms for data warehousing and application workloads. Snowflake's scalable, cloud-native architecture and expansive set of features and objects enables you to deliver data solutions quicker than ever before. Yet, we must ensure that these solutions are developed using recommended design patterns and accompanied by documentation that’s easily accessible to everyone in the organization. This book will help you get familiar with simple and practical data modeling frameworks that accelerate agile design and evolve with the project from concept to code. These universal principles have helped guide database design for decades, and this book pairs them with unique Snowflake-native objects and examples like never before – giving you a two-for-one crash course in theory as well as direct application. By the end of this Snowflake book, you’ll have learned how to leverage Snowflake’s innovative features, such as time travel, zero-copy cloning, and change-data-capture, to create cost-effective, efficient designs through time-tested modeling principles that are easily digestible when coupled with real-world examples.
Table of Contents (24 chapters)
1
Part 1: Core Concepts in Data Modeling and Snowflake Architecture
8
Part 2: Applied Modeling from Idea to Deployment
14
Part 3: Solving Real-World Problems with Transformational Modeling

An overview of database normalization

Database normalization is the process of organizing a database in a way that reduces redundancy and dependency within its tables. This is achieved by breaking a large table into smaller ones and linking them through foreign key relationships. Doing so leads to fewer data inconsistencies and improved data integrity. A normalized database results in a modular design that is easy to scale and modify.

Normalization occurs through escalating stages of formal rules called normal forms, ranging from the first normal form (1NF) to the sixth normal form (6NF)—although the first through third are most commonly used and are sufficient for most use cases.

Each normal form builds on the requirements of its predecessor and adds additional criteria that every database table must satisfy. A normal form is considered satisfied when every table in the database meets the criteria laid out for it (and, by extension, its predecessors).

Neglecting normalization...