Re: Advice on SQL and records

From: Marshall Spight <marshall.spight_at_gmail.com>
Date: 21 Aug 2005 20:36:18 -0700
Message-ID: <1124681778.000058.189480@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com>

fran_beta_at_hotmail.com wrote:
>
> I guess the problem is "what exactly are the records in
> 'StudentClasses'"?

The term "records" isn't a great one, as it promotes record-based thinking. Set-based thinking is more native to the relational world.

"A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming, is not worth knowing." -- Alan Perlis

SQL, flaws and all, will change the way you think about programming if you bother to really learn it. Most don't; instead they just try to find a way to map their current preferred language/way of thinking onto it, find it doesn't fit very well, and judge it harshly. Imagine a 1960s FORTRAN programmer being unfrozen and trying to learn Java. He would quickly assume it was inferior because it lacks GOTO. Try to get over the hump; SQL has a lot to offer.

> It seems implicit from what you say that StudentClasses includes all
> ClassID records AND all StudentID records, whereas I assume that only
> ClassID records would be in there.

Neiter one. The StudentClasses table has only two attributes: a student id
and a class id. It exists to model what students are in what classes, and
not any facts about students or classes per se.

> Is it the case that records contain records?

Surprisingly, no.

Marshall Received on Sun Aug 21 2005 - 22:36:18 CDT