The evolution of Oracle has led to a revolution in design practices. For Oracle 10g, database physical structures have become more complex than ever before and database designers face multiple ways to implement their logical models. IS students studying database design and administration need to be able to implement management systems in a way that enables fast performance while preserving logical data structures.

Physical Database Design Using Oracle correlates logical data models with the physical implementation structures that Oracle provides. It allows students to learn how to take logical data models and convert them into a series of data structures that permit fast and easy logical access to data. Oracle 10g offers object-oriented data structures, pure relational data structures, and specialized data structures such as index-organized tables. Given so many choices, future DBAs and Oracle designers must understand the approprate use of each physical technology and how it maps to their data models.

This textbook is targeted at undergraduate and graduate IS students working to become the Oracle professionals of the near future. It is expected that they already have exposure to basic Oracle database administration. The expert guidance provided by this textbook offers the insight needed to choose appropriate physical models for mission-critical applications.