CST363 Intro to Database Systems Module 1: Relational DB and SQL

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

The most important difference between a spreadsheet and database is the ability to organize the data and access the data in a structured way. Tables/Databases are also relational which means that you can connect multiple tables together. The relational attribute of relational tables allow data to be changed in different places that will be updated where the instance of that data is located.
 

1.2 What are some important reasons for using a database rather than just using files?  (from orientation slides)

An important reason for using a database is that a lot of employers are using databases to store their data so it's important to have the skills to learn that.  You can also do a lot more things with databases in terms of manipulating the data and doing queries in order to get you the pertinent information that you want.

1.3 An SQL select statements has SELECT, FROM, WHERE, ORDER BY, LIMIT parts.  Which are optional and which are required?

SELECT and FROM are required because you need to select the column you want to represent and the name of the table you want to pull that information from. WHERE is a condition that you can use to get a more specific result such as WHERE amount > 100. ORDER BY is also optional and it allows you to sort the result in a DESC or ASC order by whatever column you specify. The LIMIT clause is also optional and that allows you to limit the number of rows returned to you.

1.4 Overall

This week was ok. I learned how to do basic SQL queries and read up on relational databases. I underestimated the quiz and noticed how there are a lot of tricky statements so going forward, I'll need to be careful and read the chapters more in depth.