CST363 Week 1

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

Firstly, there is a difference in how an end-user interacts with the data. With a spreadsheet, a program like Excel is often used to read / alter data graphically. With databases, users either directly issue commands to the DBMS, or indirectly interact with the database via a front-end application.

Secondly, relational databases have additional constraints on how the data is structured. For example, a table must contain at least one column that serves as a primary key, column names must be unique, each row must be unique, column values must be derived from a known, predefined domain, columns may only contain one value for each row, and values in a single column must all be of the same type.

Installing and setting up a database and learning how to use it is more complicated that just reading and writing a file. What are some important reasons for using a database rather than just using files to store the data?

Databases are optimized for storing large amounts of data in a structured, and easy-to-query way. They are ideal in situations where the contained data is expected to be read and updated frequently, and where many different attributes need to be handled and selected upon. Files, in contrast, are often rigid structures. Binary formats cannot easily adapt to changes in schema; and, in general, it can be difficult to coordinate concurrent access to a file’s contents.

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

It seems that most database systems use a similar language to query and interact with the underlying data. I think that in this course, becoming familiar with this query language, and developing a general understanding of how databases are structured would provide me the ability to work with most database systems in the future. Other useful topics might include what is required to remotely access a database, and what precautions might be required for a database system to serve multiple users / connections concurrently.