Skip to content

Week 1: What Is a Database?

Due: Monday, Aug 31st

This first reading is background. We defined these terms briefly on the first day. Everything else this semester assumes you can explain them.

Prompt

Paste the standard prompt, then paste this block.

Topic: What a database is, and how a relational database
organizes data.

My learning objectives:
- Explain what a database and a database management system are,
  and why a spreadsheet is not one.
- Describe how a relational database organizes data into tables,
  rows, and columns.
- Explain what a primary key is and why a table needs one.

Teach me these concepts. Give me an analogy or a comparison
before you give me the definition, and don't move on until I
have restated the idea in my own words.

Sources

  • Intro to Databases from the SQLModel documentation. Start here. This page is written for programmers who have never used a database, and we will return to this site in October.
  • 1.1 Basics in A Practical Introduction to Databases.
  • 3.1 The relational model of the database in the same book. This section is more formal than the other two, which is the point: it gives you the vocabulary that the rest of the course uses precisely.