Intro to Databases Week 8

 The previous post does a good job summarizing my thoughts about databases (both MySQL and MongoDB).  In short, I've throughly enjoyed the course, the 3 most important things I've felt I've learned are:

1.  Database design.  The course has helped me a lot to understand database design decisions, which directly affect how databases are used.  Database design patterns that either I wasn't ware of previous or was unfamiliar with why they were made, had popped up in my previous work of, why is this query structured like this, or why does this query work but this one doesn't.  I've now learned a great deal about how and probably more importantly why databases are designed the way they are.  
2. SQL command syntax.  I became a lot more comfortable putting together SQL queries durning this course, you're kind of forced to.  Previous in my work, I've struggled and felt at times as though I was trying random combinations to craft a proper SQL query.  Now I feel comfortable both reading and writing efficient SQL queries that I know will produced the desired effect.
3. Efficient database usage.  What I mean by that is, previously, I would craft a query that returned me results and then I would spend a bunch of effort transforming or filtering the data inside the application or script itself.  I now understand how to craft SQL queries that not only will return me data, but can act on that data itself, sometimes a lot more efficiently than I might perform manually in my own program after the fact.  Being able to let the query do some of that work is greatly helpful.