Have you ever inherited a project with 80 tables and no documentation at all, or at best a 50 page document with database schema dumps?
You can draw it all on one page as an ERD (entity relationship diagram) with the main tables and their relationships. And this diagram can be understood in minutes, not hours/days like in the case of the schema dumps.
Also you can use various ERD editors, or text-based diagramming tools, like PlatUML, MermaidJS, DBML, on the schema design stage, while keeping the diagram sources in the source control.
Another usecase is to generate a detailed ERD for the current database schema in CI, and periodically review it, to ensure it conforms to the original design, and you understanding of the current schema is correct.
Have you ever inherited a project with 80 tables and no documentation at all, or at best a 50 page document with database schema dumps?
You can draw it all on one page as an ERD (entity relationship diagram) with the main tables and their relationships. And this diagram can be understood in minutes, not hours/days like in the case of the schema dumps.
Also you can use various ERD editors, or text-based diagramming tools, like PlatUML, MermaidJS, DBML, on the schema design stage, while keeping the diagram sources in the source control.
Another usecase is to generate a detailed ERD for the current database schema in CI, and periodically review it, to ensure it conforms to the original design, and you understanding of the current schema is correct.