CST363 - Week 1

 CST 363 Introduction to Database

From the orientation, your reading from week 1 and your own experience answer the following questions.
1.     Relational database tables and spreadsheets look similar with both having rows and columns.  What are some important differences between the two?
Below are the important differences.

• Spreadsheets allow duplicate data across the same row; relational database tables support data sets only and do not allow duplicate rows.
• Spreadsheets allow multiple values per cell; relational database tables only support a single value.
• Relational database tables must have a unique column name for the same table.
• Data type is not enforced in spreadsheets; relational database tables must assign a data type to each column.

2.     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? 

While installing and configuring databases is time-consuming, the advantages of using a database system include time savings by optimizing data for retrieval and mainly powerful reporting. Many of the features that database systems offer are not possible to utilize if data is saved to a flat file. For instance, multi-user accessibility allows reading and writing data concurrently. Additionally, databases act as vessels that contain the data without modifying the application, compromising data integrity and impacting other users’ access. Data indexing improves searching for data faster than using basic find options to look at the entire data. In return, the uptime for accessing data necessary to operate the business is higher and worth investing time in setting up and configuring database use.

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

In this course, I hope to learn more about database design and practice SQL coding that allows me to build queries. Since databases are widely used in the industry, learning the fundamentals of database administration is essential to many jobs, including software engineers.

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