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CST 363 Learning Journal Week 1

Relational database tables and spreadsheets look similar with both having rows and columns.  What are some important differences between the two?

One important difference is that a relational database focuses on concurrency. The data that is presented to the user is always the most up to date representation of the data. If one user makes a change that change is reflected in the database and is kept current across all users. A relational database can also incorporate security an permissions that allow certain users different levels of access. 

Installing and configuration a database and learning how to use it is more complicated that just reading and writing data to a file.  What are some important reasons that makes a database a useful investment of time? 

I think databases are a useful investment of time because many of the applications we use or will build for the future will rely on organized data that can be accessed by users in appropriate and meaningful ways. To study for future treads, or even using machine learning all require the use of large data sets that need to be organized and curated. 

What do you want to learn in this course that you think will be useful in your future career? 

For me I believe that learning how to build and manipulate databases will be the most useful for my career. I am looking to get into mobile app development and databases are a critical component for most major apps today. I think many of the concepts learned in this class such as creating a database, defining a schema and model, will be useful to my future career.

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