cst 363: week 1

Relational database tables and spreadsheets look similar with both having rows and columns.  What are some important differences between the two?

Spreadsheets don't require primary keys, while relational databases need them. Also, databases don't have strict constraints on data types per column, whereas databases do. Additionally, it's easy to create reliable automation for databases, but not so much with spreadsheets. Databases can handle multiple tasks and changes simultaneously (concurrent), whereas spreadsheets typically are one by one. Finally, the filtering that spreadsheets have is far less complex than what you can do with databases. Pulling and exporting specific sets from databases is easier with SQL scripts.

Installing and configuration a database and learning how to use it is more complicated that just reading and writing data to a file.  What are some important reasons that makes a database a useful investment of time?

A database is a useful investment of time from a data integrity and security perspective. Making sure that you prioritize a stable and secure database from the beginning is very important because once you start building your application around a terribly designed database, it will be very difficult to refactor everything. Also, this can help with scaling if your data tables start growing more than you anticipate. You won't only have to read and write data to a file, but you'll need to update and delete data as your users are using your application, too.

What do you want to learn in this course that you think will be useful in your future career? 

I would love to brush up on SQL and create queries without using Google. I don't know if I'll ever memorize everything, but to me this reminds me a lot of Excel. Once you know it, you can easily reference back, and create queries, kind of like riding a bike. You'll never forget it. This is useful when handling large volumes of data, or going through tables and sorting data. I've used tools like Retool and Metabase where SQL is very useful, so I'm excited to strengthen my skills even more.