Intro to MySQL databases: Question Week 2
Written by Bean on September 6, 2008 – 8:33 amThis week, the introduction to MySQL students have been looking at various database schemes as well as their own address database. Databases are everywhere in our lives these days. Think of things in your own life that are powered by databases, that are NOT web related. In the intermediate course we turn our attention to data driven web sites. But the first couple of weeks in the introduction course, I want you to think of databases on a larger stage. Post two things in your life that are database driven and give a description of at least one table that might exist in that database.
For example: My doctors’ office tracks all appointments in their database. I would imagine that it has a table that contains information about the individual doctors, as well as a table that contains specific information about individual patients. My neighborhood video store has a database that lists all of the movies at that store. The movie table probably lists things like title, genre and year released.
You don’t need to give a lot of detail. Just list two examples and for each example try to guess how at least one of those tables might organize information
Posted in Class Announcements | 6 Comments »
My drivers license (Bureau of motor vehicles)
Probably a table with drivers license number, name and address, maybe another that includes any violations and points on license.
Local library. Table of books, with isbn number. Table of authors. Probably an availability and/or location (different branches) table.
I belong to a rowing club. Rowing clubs keep track of members, whether they have paid their dues, completed the required float test, weight and age classes, taken the coxing class. They also keep track of boats – the type, rigging, oars, past repairs, current repairs.
I’m a teacher. The school district database (which is linked to the state) includes such things as student id, name, parental info, address, phone, email, grades, allergies, WASL test scores, special information about custody issues, if the child is on free/reduced lunch.
~ Cheryl
I take dancing lessons
Dance teachers keep track of their pupils, their names, addresses,phone numbers,which classes they attend
They also keep track of their classes, the time,the day of the week,the location
I am also a member of a church
Our circuit (group of churches) holds information on churches, the location, the number of members
They also keep track of the ministers, their names, their addresses,which church(es) they work at
Those are some good examples of databases Suzan. Since a teacher can teach multiple classes, a relational database is important. It sounds like churches can have multiple ministers and ministers can be affiliated with multiple churches?
At my work we have a lot of chances to volunteer including going to a local school and teaching for half of a day on what our career is. I think this would need a database of classrooms in need of a teacher that day, available employees to help, type of career they will be teaching, time of day: morning or afternoon, how many times this employee has volunteered for this opportunity.
And another database used for the same type is the blood drives that are held at my work. Employee name, date donated, next date they can give again, blood type and if there were any problems while giving blood – did the employee pass out? Need extra help? Were they turned away and if so why?
Sandy K
My college keeps quite good track of us alumni. This includes our addresses, phone numbers, year of graduation, and, I suspect, our donation history.
My church also keeps track of such. We get quarterly reports of how our pledge totals for the year, so far, are keeping up with what we pledged. When we pledge, we are sent envelopes with a number on them, same number year after year. I suspect that is the primary id for a table with our names. adddresses, phone numbers and email. There could be related tables linking us to various activities we’ve taken part in and those mailing lists. However, in writing this, I have begun to wonder how they record any donations from people who haven’t pledged and who consequently have no number? I assume that must be recorded somehow.