SQL Post - Brandon Mengel

SQL is an acronym that stands for structured query language so in simpler terms, an organized question language...  SQL is similar to C+ and java script, basically another computer coding language but it is the standard language used to communicate with a database by queries.  SQL can be used to execute tasks such as updating data, retrieving data, modifying data and deleting data.  Some of the most collective database management systems using SQL are: Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, and Google.  Although most companies’ database systems use SQL, they usually have their own modified version for their own unique purpose, which makes it very difficult to copy over to a different company.  However, standard commands such as "Select", "Insert", "Update", "Delete", "Create", and "Drop" accommodate most user needs within a database.[1]

Originally IBM employees founded SQL on relational algebra and some complicated calculus in the 1970’s.  “In that model, a table is a set of tuples and query results are lists in rows: the same row may occur multiple times, and the order of rows can be employed in queries (e.g. in the LIMIT clause).” From this, SQL now consists of a data definition language, data manipulation language, and data control language.  Database administrators, program developers, and data analysts regularly use SQL to set up and run analytical queries.[2]

SQL is important because of it’s simplicity, usability and consistency.  Since the 1970’s there have been many languages that have been backed by various companies to overthrow SQL but because of everything mentioned earlier it has thrived and became the most popular database language.  More of, SQL has become a standard; it's easy to find people who know SQL.  SQL’s simplicity and consistency comes from its declarative nature.  The query is written by declaring the form of the results, and then the software understands the best way to access the data, operate it, and return any results.  SQL has the ability to scale massive data storage.  For companies like Google, Facebook, and other data based companies this is a necessity.  “New SQL systems such as VoltDB have shown that millions of SQL operations per second are within the reach of anyone with an Amazon Web Services (AWS) account.”[3]

[1]Q. (n.d.). What is SQL? Retrieved February 10, 2017,from.http://www.sqlcourse.com/intro.html

[2] SQL. (n.d.). Retrieved February 10, 2017, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SQL

[3] V. (n.d.). Why SQL Is Important. Retrieved February 10, 2017, from https://www.voltdb.com/why-sql-important

[4] G. (n.d.). F1: A Distributed SQL Database That Scales. Retrieved February 10, 2017, from http://static.googleusercontent.com/media/research.google.com/en/us/pubs/archive/41344.pdf

Peter D

You know i can really relate and understand what an object oriented data base is based on your description and my familiarity with Revit's family.  At first i was kind of clueless at what you were talking about comparing it to object oriented programming because that phrase just sounds complicated.  Probably just the programming behind Revit and other design applications.  This object oriented data base is enormously helpful and very useful.  I'm planning on using the feature of changing the properties of certain type very soon because i have constructed a basic structural plan before sizing any beams and I'm hoping to just be able to tell Revit to change all of them to the correct size. We'll see how that goes.

Maria R

I almost laughed at your experience not in a bad way just because i had a similar problem with similar results with excel unexpectantly quitting on me.  Probably one of the most frustrating things because of course i didn't save my work, luckily excel had the backup thing going on which helped tremendously. Still, I never got the data list i was trying to get because it kept failing.  I total forgot about that and that actually kind of inspires me to learn SQL but at the same time not really because I still hate coding since Matlab.  Not sure how i feel going into this data assignment.

Drew H

You make the data base thing sound very simple but i'm apprehensive because i am the "engineer" you mentioned earlier.  I definitely see the value in databases but i just don't see value in us creating a database.  Your explanation of the theory made it sound simple in concept and seemingly very valuable but i honestly struggle with computer languages.  One thing that i hope that i can build off from what you've talked about is the querying of over 1000 ids.  Something in Revit that bothers me is that when searching for a certain component in the family folder you have to know exactly what folder everything is in and some of them aren't always the most obvious.  I hope that by learning to use the databases, i will be able to manipulate a search bar or database to so i can pull the concept family right from the database based on different search factors.