Using SQL Queries to Evaluate the Design of SQL Databases

The system catalog of a database with explicit schemas contains among other things information about the structure of the database. Queries based on the system catalog allow us to search occurrences of database design antipatterns (database design flaws). In this paper, we present the results of an evaluation of a set of SQL databases. We used the queries that were presented in the previous paper on this topic. A goal of the research is to further experimentally evaluate the queries. We present findings about the queries as well as evaluated databases. In addition, we propose more questions about the design of conceptual schemas of SQL databases that can be answered by querying their system catalogs. The use of the queries would allow us to partially automate the process of evaluating structure and constraints of existing databases and detecting design flaws.