Revision [7616]
This is an old revision of ResearchSQLTutorial made by JasonChow on 2013-02-05 08:25:39.
First off, a brief description of how information is stored in an SQL database. You should be familiar with how spreadsheets are laid out at this point. if not, please ask a director to provide you access to, 'The_Long_Spreadsheet_Guide' in Google Docs and examine it before proceeding.
Spreadsheets store information in what looks like a two-dimensional table with an x and y axis (example below).
| A | B | C | D | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A1 | B1 | C1 | D1 |
| 2 | A2 | B2 | C2 | The Mighty Ducks |
| 3 | A3 | B3 | C3 | D3 |
| 4 | D4 | B4 | C4 | D4 |
Cells in spreadsheets are referenced by their position in the grid of the table. In the example above, 'The Mighty Ducks' is displayed in cell D2. Using a spreadsheet to store information is a quick and easy solution for MOST data, however we run into issues with repeating data, and large files sizes among others. Also it may be more difficult to standardize data entry and display if data is directly entered into a spreadsheet. What if we had a large spreadsheet for candidates running for elections in a particular state? We may have something that looks like the table below, and imagine if we have even more data associated with each row, there could be an infinite number of columns.
| A | B | C | D | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Schumer, Chuck | NY | U.S. Senate | 2010 |
| 2 | Charles Schumer | NY | U.S. Senate | 2004 |
| 3 | Chuck Ellis Schumer | New York | U.S. Senate | 1998 |
| 4 | Schumer | New York | U.S. House District 9 | 1992 |
