Acknowledgments

I am not a genius, nor am I some form of pioneer in the database design world. I am just a person who 15 or so years ago asked the question of a publisher: “Do you have any books on database design?” The reply: “No, why don’t you write one?” So I did, and I haven’t stopped writing since then, with this book now in its fifth edition. I acknowledge that the following “people” have been extremely helpful in making this book happen and evolve along the way. Some have helped me directly, while others probably don’t even know that this book exists. Either way, they have all been an important part of the process.

• Far above anyone else, Jesus Christ, without whom I wouldn’t have had the strength to complete the task of writing this book. I know I am not ever worthy of the Love that You give me.
• My wife, Valerie Davidson, for putting up with this craziness for yet another time, all while working on her doctorate in education.
• Gary Cornell, for a long time ago giving me a chance to write the book that I wanted to write.
• My current managers, Mark Carpenter, Andy Curley, and Keith Griffith, for giving me time to go to several conferences that really helped me to produce as good of a book as I did. And to all of my coworkers at CBN, who have provided me with many examples for this book and my other writing projects.
• The PASS conferences (particularly SQL Saturday events), where I was able to hone my material and meet thousands of people over the past three years and find out what they wanted to know.
• Jessica Moss, for teaching me a lot about data warehousing, and taking the time to write the last chapter of this book for you.
• Paul Nielsen, for challenging me to progress and think harder about the relational model and its strengths and weaknesses.
• The MVP Program, and perhaps even more importantly, the MVPs and Microsoft folks I have come into contact with over the years. I have learned so much in the newsgroups, e-mail lists, and in particular, the MVP Summit that I could not have done half as well without them (check the first edition of this book for evidence that things got better after I became an MVP!).
• The fantastic editing staff I’ve had, including Jonathan Gennick and Jill Balzano, who (figuratively) busted my lip a few times over my poor structure, use of the English language, etc., and without whom the writing would sometimes appear to come from an illiterate chimpanzee. Most of these people are included on the copyright page, but I want to say a specific thanks to them and to Tony Davis (who had a big hand in the 2005 version of the book) for making this book great, despite my frequently rambling writing style.
• To the academics out there who have permeated my mind with database theory, such as E. F. Codd, Chris Date, Fabian Pascal, Joe Celko, my professors at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, and many others. I wouldn’t know half as much without you. And thanks to Mr. Date for reviewing Chapter 1 in the previous edition; you probably did more for the next version of this book than the current one.
• All of the people I have acknowledged in previous editions who were so instrumental in getting this book to where it is from all of the many changes and lessons over the years. I’ve built upon the help you’ve all provided over the past 12+ years.