Learning Journal Week 1- CST363

 Relational databases and spreadsheets can look similar on the surface, but their purpose and strengths are very different. A spreadsheet works well for small and simple tasks like keeping a budget, making a class schedule, or performing quick calculations. It is flexible, but that flexibility often leads to inconsistency and errors. For instance, imagine tracking inventory in a spreadsheet: one row lists “MacBook Pro,” another lists “Mac Book Pro,” and a third says “Apple Laptop.” All three entries might describe the same product, yet the spreadsheet treats them as separate items. A relational database, by contrast, enforces structure and rules through primary keys, foreign keys, and data types. This ensures that each product is stored once and referenced consistently wherever it is needed. Beyond enforcing rules, databases provide features that spreadsheets cannot, such as handling multiple users editing the same data at once, providing security through role-based access, and scaling to millions of rows spread across disks or servers.

The effort to learn relational databases is worthwhile because they deliver critical advantages for real systems. Databases support transactions, which guarantee that no update is left half-finished, an essential feature for things like financial transfers. They include recovery mechanisms to restore data after crashes, indexing to access information quickly, and tools for sharing data across many people and applications without corruption. These are the features that keep important systems in banking, healthcare, e-commerce, and countless other industries reliable and safe. Without them, organizations would face data loss, duplication, and inconsistency that would cripple operations.

Through this course I want to build fluency in SQL for querying and designing relational databases while also becoming comfortable using Java to interact with them. This matters for me as a developer because nearly every modern application relies on storing, accessing, and manipulating data. Knowing how to design schemas, write optimized queries, and connect application logic to databases will make me a stronger engineer and open opportunities in both software development and data-focused roles.