This week at Lambda for my cohort was RDBMS/SQL week. I knew I was not the best at sql but I thought I would be pretty good. In my prior life I crafted sql queries regularly and even taught many members of the finannce department how to use sql in excel and make their own queries. This gave me a distorted view of my own abilities. Like they say, “In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.” Turns out, I’m just somewhat better than pauper. Mechant class maybe?
We started by looking at a toy sqlite3 database of rpg characters. Loading it in the database into the sqlite browser (db browser) we explored the data using sql queries including some use cases for COUNT and AVG. For module 2 we learned how to set up a postgres instance on ElephantSQL. We took the rpg database as well as the titanic database from UCI and converted them from sqlite3/csv to sql databased on ElephantSQL. On module 3 we were introduced to the travesty know as NoSQL. While I’m sure there are some use cases out there, I’m sure they could just as easily covered with “mv data /dev/null”. It is easier to code for nosql but I’m sure that’s because it’s totally lax and unstructured any old crap will work.
Today the plan is to review the differnces and prepare for the sprint challenge. This afternoon will be spent with more sql review and hopefully tackling the career assignment.