Acknowledgments

“I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and the new.”

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

I am not a genius, nor am I some form of pioneer in the database design world. I acknowledge that the following “people” have been extremely helpful in making this book happen along the way. Some help 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 a fifth time.

Gary Cornell, for 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. All of my coworkers at CBN that provide 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, for giving me access to learn more about the internals of SQL Server over the years.

The fantastic editing staff I’ve had, including Jonathan Gennick who (figuratively) busted my lip a few times over my poor use of the English language 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 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; 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 that were so instrumental in getting this book where it is from all of the many changes and lessons over the years. I built upon the help you all provided over the past 12+ years.

Louis Davidson