In Development: This textbook is currently undergoing development and should not be used as an authoritative source of... well, ANYTHING.

18  Building a Schema

18.1 Learning Objectives

By the end of this chapter, students will be able to:

• Create a PostgreSQL schema using CREATE SCHEMA to organize related tables into a named namespace.
• Reference database objects using schema-qualified names (e.g., registrar.students).
• Configure the search_path for a session or role to control which schema is searched first for unqualified object names.
• Design a multi-table schema from a written set of business requirements, applying normalization principles and referential integrity constraints.
• Write a complete DDL script that creates schemas, tables, constraints, and indexes in correct dependency order.
• Evaluate a schema design for common problems such as missing constraints, inappropriate data types, or unnormalized structures, and propose improvements.