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Designing Tables

The topics in this section provide information to help you design effective tables.

In This Section

  • Table Planning Guidelines
    Introduces the main tasks in designing a table.

  • Assigning a Data Type to a Column
    Explains the data types available in SQL Server.These include system-supplied data types, user-defined alias data types, and Microsoft .NET Framework common language runtime (CLR) user-defined types.

  • Autonumbering and Identifier Columns
    Explains the concept of creating system-generated table values that are unique to a table or a computer network.

  • Computed Columns
    Explains how to create virtual columns that use values computed from other columns in the same table.

  • Enforcing Data Integrity
    Provides guidelines for designing PRIMARY KEY, FOREIGN KEY, UNIQUE, and CHECK constraints; designing defaults; and specifying nullability in table definitions.