Why Databases?

(What's Wrong with Spreadsheets?)

Imagine the following table or spreadsheet... It might be a table (or subset of a table) of CS courses from Fall 2017.

Courses Table

Code Section Term Year StartDate Title Cap Enrollment
COMP 105 01 Fall 2017 09/11/2017 Intro to CS 15 15
COMP 105 02 Fall 2017 09/11/2017 Intro to CS 15 15
COMP 108 01 Fall 2017 09/11/2017 Scientific Computing 20 22
COMP 210 01 Fall 2017 09/11/2017 Data Structures 25 15
COMP 489 01 Fall 2017 09/11/2017 Mobile Development 15 11
COMP 490 01 Fall 2017 09/11/2017 SR Sem 15 21

Note: this table has a certain amount of repetition.

What if it's a larger table (e.g., 2 years' worth of Fall courses)?

Courses Table

Code Section Term Year Title Cap Enrollment StartDate
COMP 105 01 Fall 2016 09/12/2016 Intro to CS 15 14
COMP 105 02 Fall 2016 09/12/2016 Intro to CS 15 15
COMP 108 01 Fall 2016 09/12/2016 Scientific Computing 20 17
COMP 210 01 Fall 2016 09/12/2016 Data Structures 25 17
COMP 488 01 Fall 2016 09/12/2016 FOSS Development 15 15
COMP 490 01 Fall 2016 09/12/2016 SR Sem 15 16
COMP 105 01 Fall 2017 09/11/2017 Intro to CS 15 15
COMP 105 02 Fall 2017 09/11/2017 Intro to CS 15 15
COMP 108 01 Fall 2017 09/11/2017 Scientific Computing 20 22
COMP 210 01 Fall 2017 09/11/2017 Data Structures 25 15
COMP 489 01 Fall 2017 09/11/2017 Mobile Development 15 11
COMP 490 01 Fall 2017 09/11/2017 SR Sem 15 21

Note: this table has both more repetition (e.g., "Intro to CS") and more variation (e.g., the year is not always 2017).

Courses Table

SELECT * FROM Courses ORDER BY StartDate, Code;

Code Section Term Year StartDate Title Cap Enrollment
COMP 105 01 Fall 2016 09/12/2016 Intro to CS 15 14
COMP 105 02 Fall 2016 09/12/2016 Intro to CS 15 15
COMP 108 01 Fall 2016 09/12/2016 Scientific Computing 20 17
COMP 210 01 Fall 2016 09/12/2016 Data Structures 25 17
COMP 488 01 Fall 2016 09/12/2016 FOSS Development 15 15
COMP 490 01 Fall 2016 09/12/2016 SR Sem 15 16
COMP 105 01 Winter 2017 01/03/2017 Intro to CS 15 21
COMP 110 01 Winter 2017 01/03/2017 Intro to Prog 15 18
COMP 110 02 Winter 2017 01/03/2017 Intro to Prog 15 14
COMP 215 01 Winter 2017 01/03/2017 Algorithms 25 27
COMP 430 01 Winter 2017 01/03/2017 Op. Sys. 20 23
COMP 483 01 Winter 2017 01/03/2017 Cryptography 20 20
COMP 107 01 Spring 2017 03/27/2017 Pictures & Sound 15 14
COMP 107 02 Spring 2017 03/27/2017 Pictures & Sound 15 17
COMP 110 01 Spring 2017 03/27/2017 Intro to Prog 15 16
COMP 210 01 Spring 2017 03/27/2017 Data Structures 25 17
COMP 230 01 Spring 2017 03/27/2017 Comp. Org. 25 21
COMP 300 01 Spring 2017 03/27/2017 Automata 20 26
COMP 105 01 Fall 2017 09/11/2017 Intro to CS 15 15
COMP 105 02 Fall 2017 09/11/2017 Intro to CS 15 15
COMP 108 01 Fall 2017 09/11/2017 Scientific Computing 20 22
COMP 210 01 Fall 2017 09/11/2017 Data Structures 25 15
COMP 489 01 Fall 2017 09/11/2017 Mobile Development 15 11
COMP 490 01 Fall 2017 09/11/2017 SR Sem 15 21

Note: this table has even more repetition (e.g., "Intro to CS") and more variation (e.g., the term is not always Fall).
Note also: some data items always go together, e.g., COMP 105 always has the same title and the same cap; a given term always starts on the same date.

Simple tables and spreadsheets do not scale up well!

Alyce Brady, Kalamazoo College