CST 363 Week 4

Briefly summarize 5 things that you have learned in the course so far.  

  1. One of the first things I learned in this course are the differences in tracking records with an SQL database versus an Excel spreadsheet. A spreadsheet may be sufficient to fulfill the needs for small tables that are managed by few people, but larger projects should be handled by a database system. Some of the benefits of using a database system are improved performance and the implementation of rules to govern the database.

  2. I have also learned about the logical design process for a database. The text highlights the importance of creating an entity-relationship model before working in SQL. Following the logical design process allows an administrator to determine when it is necessary to create tables and how to structure relations between entities.

  3. Labs 12 and 14 have helped me better understand indexes on columns within tables. These labs also provided good visual diagrams to show how rows are referenced by indexes and how they are stored in blocks. Additionally, this was the first time I have worked with the ByteBuffer class in java, so I also learned a little about this class and how it is used.

  4. Some of the homework questions that involved complex queries were challenging at first, but learning better ways to approach these problems helped me solve them. Breaking problems down into smaller pieces or subqueries simplified larger tasks for me.

  5. I have also become much more comfortable with joins over the course of this month. I have a friend that took a database systems course in the past and struggled with joins. I am aware that we only worked on simple problems up to this point, but I have built some confidence in writing queries through learning how to join tables.


List at least 3 questions you still have about databases.


  1. At some point, I would like to learn more about some of the other SQL features that were mentioned in the prompt of the week 3 Learning Journal. I believe that learning new functions would be beneficial for developing projects that deal with databases in the future.

  2. I also want to learn more ways to connect an SQL database with an application. In the software design class we took last semester, we developed android applications that connected to a SQLite database, and I would love to gain more experience with projects like this. 

  3. Lastly, I would like to learn more about how SQL is used in the workplace. While I think the SQL databases we used for assignments so far have been a good educational aid, I would like to learn more about what kind of issues a data analyst may solve on a daily basis.

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