Week 20 - ERDs, Ordered Indexes and Normalization

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 This week I got hands on with ERDs and ordered indexes.

One of our labs this week helped me understand the purpose and concept of using ER (entity-relationship) diagrams. I created a real-life scenario database system that tracks things like customers, orders and inventory. I learned how much of a powerful tool MySQL Workbench. It really helped simplify the process of designing relational databases. I’m really impressed that I can essentially make a diagram that can also help me create a database on the fly. After doing this lab I’m not as intimidated by ERDs as I was before.

Another lab picked up from the previous labs and introduced me to the concept of indexes in databases to speed up retrieval in large datasets. The use of binary search in the index is important because it shows how much faster it is compared to a normal search. This is important because in real-world scenarios we deal with big sets of data, so efficiency is key.

5 notable things I’ve learned so far.

1. Using SQL with relational databases.

2. Developed an understanding of enforcing data integrity through constraints.

3. Experience with B+ trees.

4. Query evaluation through use of Java by using logical conditions like eq, and, or.

5. How to generate ERDs.

3 Questions.

1.      How different is MySQL to the other languages like NoSQL.

2.      What are the advantages of NoSQL compared to relational databases.

3.      How does transaction management work in SQL databases?

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