On Query-Based Search Of Possible Design Flaws Of SQL Databases

Abstract

System catalog, which is a part of each SQL database, is a repository where the data in its base tables describes the SQL-schemas (schemas) in the database. The SQL standard specifies the Information Schema, which must contain virtual tables (views) that are created based on the base tables of the system catalog. In this paper, we investigate to what extent one can find information about possible design flaws of a SQL database by querying the tables in its Information Schema and possibly tables in its other schemas. We do this based on a set of SQL database design antipatterns, each of which presents a particular type of database design flaw.