CST 363

  This week is half way through the course.  Briefly summarize 5 things what you have learned in the course so far.   List at least 3 questions you still have about databases.

  What is an SQL view.  How is it similar to a table? In what ways is it different (think about primary keys,  insert, update, delete operations) ? We have completed our study of SQL for this course.  This is not to imply that we have studied everything in the language.  There are many specialized features such as calculating rolling averages, query of spatial data (data with latitude and longitude) coordinates, and more. But take a minute to think about how SQL compares to other programming languages such as Java.  What features are similar , and which are present in one language but not in the other?  For example,  Java has conditional if statements which are similar to SQL WHERE predicates,  the SELECT clause is similar to a RETURN statement in that it specifies what data or expression values are to be returned in the query result (although it is strange that a statement should specify the RETURN as the first part of a SELECT. 

SQL has the flexibility to join tables on any column(s) using any predicate (=, >, < ).    Most of the time the join will use equality between a primary and foreign key.   Think of example where joining on something other than keys would be needed.  Write the query both as an English sentence and in SQL.  If you can't think of your own example, search the textbook or internet for an example. What is your opinion of SQL as a language?  Do you think it is easy to learn and use?  When translating from an English question to SQL, what kinds of questions do you find most challenging?

  From the orientation, your reading from week 1 and your own experience answer the following questions. Relational database tables and spreadsheets look similar with both having rows and columns.  What are some important differences between the two? While both relational database tables and spreadsheets use rows and columns to organize data, they differ significantly in their structure, data types, and capabilities.  Databases are designed for storing and managing large, structured datasets with complex relationships, while spreadsheets excel at smaller, more ad-hoc data analysis and manipulation.   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?  Learning to use a database is a worthwhile investment of time because it offers significant advantages over storing data in simple files, such as...