Homework 1
There will be relatively little to submit for this homework, but the exercise will be as rich and valuable as you make it.
Use SQLite to build your database. The current executable is called sqlite3 and is available on the CS department network and as a free download for all platforms (https://www.sqlite.org).
This week's exercise is to design and build a database about something you are actually interested in. It could be one of your hobbies, such as stamp collecting, skateboarding, or basket weaving; it could be a spectator and/or audience member and/or participatory interest like sports, movies, music, theater; it could be a scholarly interest like the history of Finland, marine life in the northern Pacific, West African musical instruments, manned space flights in the 1960s; and so on. The important thing is to choose a topic that you are personally invested in and excited about pursuing.
When you have chosen a topic, or in the process of choosing it, investigate what data sources are available, on the internet and otherwise. Be mindful of the fact that SQLite's .import command can slurp up structured files immediately and with little to no effort on your part. In other words, the purpose of this exercise is decidedly not for you to practice typing INSERT INTO; if you find yourself doing so, please stop and regather.
At the same time, think about the design of a relational database to store the information about your topic. Consider the different semantic entities in your domain, and think about how they are and are not connected to one another. Get out a pencil and paper and sketch your design, as we've done in lecture. A sketch will show you which tables, including join tables, you need to build.
Once you've decided on a database design and located a few data sources, build your database in SQLite using CREATE TABLE statements and populate the database with data using (some) INSERT INTO statements, .import directives, or some combination thereof.
To hand in:
- a README file stating the topic of the database, identifying the data sources you used to populate the database, and briefly discussing any interesting and/or vexing design considerations you dealt with in the design process, or any compromises you made in stopping short of representing all possibilities.
- a plain-text script build-database.sql generated by a .dump from within SQLite. Note that one can use this very same script, possibly with small syntactic modifications, to rebuild the database in some system outer than SQLite (mySQL, Postgres, etc.).