Query of Relativity
CS 373 Fall 2019: Week of Oct. 28 — Nov. 3

What did you do this week?
This week in class, we discussed SQL. Building off of our knowledge of relations and relational algebra, we first learned about creating databases and tables using the mySQL command-line tool. Then, we learned how to use select statements to query a table and get back results. Then we learned how to use join statements to make more advanced queries.
Outside of class, I went to HackTX where my team got second place in the main sponsor challenge. Not bad for my first hackathon.
What’s in your way?
My team still has quite a lot to do for this phase of the IDB project. It’s a matter of getting our schedules to work together because I’m going to be basically useless until 3:15 on Monday after my algorithms test.
What will you do next week?
Next week I plan to continue brushing up on my SQL, as well as continue work on the project. We’ve found a framework for implementing searching that we hope will prove fruitful. The backend team has come up with a bit of a bandaid solution in case it doesn’t pan out. Fingers crossed as always.
What was your experience of SQL?
A couple of semesters ago, I was in a class that was all about relational algebra, PostgreSQL, and databases. We learned more about databases and database design than I was able to take in. I was miserable. I vowed to never look at another database again. Now, here I am, still making SQL queries for the IDB project and in class and on my HackTX project.
So what I’m saying is, turns out there’s no such thing as useless knowledge — just knowledge you don’t like learning.
Tip of the Week
I know everyone probably knows this already and I am incredibly late to the game, but hackathons are a great place to showcase your skills and also pick up new ones. I touched a lot of the same technologies that we use in this class while making our project, and I picked up a few things that I think will be very helpful as I continue with the IDB project.
