[PLUG] Database question

Rich Shepard rshepard at appl-ecosys.com
Fri Jul 3 17:00:13 UTC 2009


On Fri, 3 Jul 2009, Amy Kelly wrote:

> I have your basic CIS121 class at PCC type background - this is a
> database, these are what these words are, go make something pretty in
> Access now. This was about four years and a bigish chunk of brain ago, so
> I'll have to go check out the book you guys recced at the library. Thanks.

Amy,

   You said that this volunteer project was a way to learn database design,
administration, programming, and SQL, so a bit of reading and thinking will
serve you well. From what little I know about Acess is that it's a flat-file
database best used as a GUI front end to SQL-Server.

   The key to learning about SQL databases is truly accepting that it is
_not_ a procedural language. It's not like GW Basic, Visual C, or anything
like that. It is a declarative language that works with and on sets. You
need to learn to think in terms of sets, not files and fields and giving
explicit, step-by-step instrutions. In SQL you describe what you want and
the underlying engine determines how to present you with those results.

Rich

-- 
Richard B. Shepard, Ph.D.               |  Integrity            Credibility
Applied Ecosystem Services, Inc.        |            Innovation
<http://www.appl-ecosys.com>     Voice: 503-667-4517      Fax: 503-667-8863



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