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Should a database be designed on SQL Server or C#?

I always thought it was more appropriate to design it on SQL Server, but recently I started reading a book (Pro ASP.NET MVC Framework) which, to my understanding, basically says that it's probably a better idea to write it in C# since you will be accessing the model through C#, which does make sense.

I was wondering what everyone else's opinion on this matter was...

I mean, for example, do you consider "correct" having a table that specifies constants (like an AccessLevel table that is always supposed to contain

1 Everyone
2 Developers
3 Administrators
4 Supervisors
5 Restricted

Wouldn't it be more robust and streamlined to just have an enum for that same purpose?

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  • I'll bet the author of that book wasn't a database specialist. You will NOT always be accessing the data through C#. Commented Nov 16, 2010 at 16:40

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A database schema should be designed on paper or with an ERD tool.

It should be implemented in the database.

Are you thinking about ORMs like Entity Framework that let you use code to generate the database?

Personally, I would rather think through my design on paper before committing it to a DB myself. I would be happy to use an ORM or class generator from this DB later on.

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Before VS.NET 2010 I was using SQL Server Management Studio to design my databases, now I am using EF 4.0 designer, for me it's the best way to go.

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If your problem domain is complex or its complexity grows as the system evolves you'll soon discover you need some meta data to make life easier. C# can be a good choice as a host language for such stuff as you can utilize its type-system to enforce some invariants (like char-columns length, null/not null restrictions or check-constraints; you can declared it as consts, enums, etc). Unfortunately i don't know utilities (sqlmetal.exe can export some meta but only as xml) that can do it out of the box, although some CASE tools probably can be customized. I'd go for some custom-made generator to produce the db schema from C# (just a few hours work comparing to learning, for example, customization options offered by Sybase PowerDesigner).

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ORMs have their place, that place is NOT database design. There are many considerations in designing a database that need to be thought through not automatically generated no matter how appealing the idea of not thinking about design might be. There are often many things that need to be considered that have nothing to do with the application, things like data integrity, reporting, audit tables and data imports. Using an ORM to create a database that looks like an object model may not be the best design for performance and may not have the the things you really need in terms of data integrity. Remember even if you think nothing except the application will touch the database ever, this is not true. At some point the data base will need to have someone do a major data revision (to fix a problem) that is done directly on the database not through the application. At somepoint you are going to need need to import a million records from some other company you just bought and are goping to need an ETL process outside teh application. Putting all your hopes and dreams for the database (as well as your data integrity rules) is short-sighted.

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