Intro to Intro to Databases

1. Relational database tables and spreadsheets look similar with both having rows and columns.  What are some important differences between the two?
1. In spreadsheets each cell (even ones in the same column) can be different types of data, integers, date, string, etc.  However in a relationship database, each column (key) must be the same type of data
2. Spreadsheet's cells can have formulas in them that compute some type of calculation based upon other cells, relational databases do not have an ability to have a "formula" saved in a record.
3. Spreadsheets can do things like produce graphs from the data stored in their tables, relational databases merely store and query the data in the database
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?
1. Helps to enable multiple users access to the same data sets
2. It enables to have protection of the saved data.  Databases can do sanity checks to ensure the data is properly conformed to spec
3. Speed.  When having multiple users accessing and editing data across potentially multitude of services, databases provide a fast and safe way.
3. What do you want to learn in this course that you think will be useful in your future career?
1. I think having a better understanding of how to work with data and how to better utilize and understand the data you do collect.