Hello everybody,
This is Michael, and as I mentioned in the welcome post, I will include other programming languages on this blog. Don’t worry, I’ll still post plenty of R lessons and analyses, but I thought it was time to include other programming languages. The next one I will introduce is MySQL, which is an open-source (meaning free to use) relational database system.
- Relational databases are created to recognize relations among items in a database. Let’s say you wanted to make a database of NFL teams and include team name, quarterback, running back, center, safety, linebacker, wide receiver, and any other football positions I missed here, along with season record. Team name would be related to any of the positions I just mentioned, as teams have someone for each of the positions. Team name would also be related to season record, as each team has a win-loss-or-sometimes-tie record each year.
To clarify, MySQL and SQL are two totally different things, being that MySQL is database management software whereas SQL is a programming language (it stands for structured query language) used to manage relational databases.
Another thing I wanted to point out is that MySQL and R-although they are both great analytical tools-serve two different purposes. Personally, I would use R to analyze data from a statistical standpoint (as seen by my logistic regression posts) while I would use MySQL for query-based analysis. Each tool has its pros and cons, as R is better for analysis and visualization of data yet the syntax is more complicated than MySQL (that’s just my opinion). Likewise, MySQL is great for query-based analysis, which is more difficult to do in R, but isn’t the best for performing advanced analyses or creating data visualizations. MySQL is also restricted to relational databases, while R is not.
For this series of posts, I’ll build a database (I’ll be using the same database throughout this series of MySQL posts) using MySQL Workbench, which I’d recommend for anyone wanting to make their own MySQL databases. If you want to install it, here’s a handy link-http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/kathleen/classes/cs3200/MySQLWorkbenchMAC10.pdf
Don’t worry everybody, I’ll actually start building the database with my next MySQL post. This post was just meant to explain the basics of MySQL.
Thank you for reading,
Michael