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Questions tagged [database]

This tag is for general database questions. If you question is specific to SQL or NoSQL, use the corresponding tags instead.

For questions about structuring the data within a database, please use database-design tag instead.

2119 questions
18
votes
10 answers

My father is a doctor. He is insisting on writing a database to store non-critical patient information, with no programming background

So, my father is currently in the process of "hacking" together a database using FileMaker Pro, a GUI based databasing tool for his small (4 doctor) practice. The database will be used to help ease the burden on reporting from medical machines,…
Dominic Bou-Samra
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17
votes
4 answers

Do I need IDs in my database if the records could be identified by the date?

I am writing my first application for Android and will use the SQLite database so will be trying to limit the size as much as possible, but I think the question applies in general to database design. I am planning to store records that will have…
Nieszka
  • 173
16
votes
5 answers

Why would an "articles" table (with no relationship to any other table) have a primary key?

Let's say that I have an articles table that have two columns: title and content, and let's say that this articles table doesn't have any relationship with any other table. Why would this articles table have a primary key? I mean, what problems…
user247763
  • 409
14
votes
2 answers

How do you handle database change deployments?

We have been discussing database deployment techniques today, having had a couple of recent failures in our current process and having seen situations where we would like to roll back a deployment but the old version of the application had never…
pdr
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12
votes
6 answers

Indexing a database

I am not so familiar with databases and now I am trying to understand the indexing mechanism. From what I know, in a RDBMS, indexing on a column makes searching by that column faster. This is also true for the triple stores, only there indices…
Dragos
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11
votes
3 answers

Best Practices: Database app programming patterns

I have written many database (MySQL) web apps so far but I always think my structure is kinda clumsy. I want to improve the programming/design pattern I use, hoping for some advice here. Particularly, I cannot find a structure that complements an…
Jake
  • 735
9
votes
3 answers

Is the age of domain logic in databases over?

I recently stumbled upon this opinion from 2016 saying that there is still case for domain logic in database. I thought that this is totally obsolete. I am just wondering if the guy is still living in 90ties or this is can be really true. Set aside…
ps-aux
  • 301
9
votes
0 answers

When connecting to a server using the DRDA protocol, is it true that the first Client-To-Server command MUST be EXCSAT chained with ACCSEC?

When connecting to a server using the DRDA protocol, is it true that the first Client-To-Server command MUST be EXCSAT chained with ACCSEC? I found 2 different answers when I googled it. If you look at The Open Group web site…
Alon Rew
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8
votes
3 answers

Cascading "Deleted" records that aren't really deleted

Just trying to get some ideas on what people do for this scenario. We have a system database(SQL Server 2008 R2) that has tables and every table has a field we can call "Deleted". It's basically a bit field if its a 1 the record is deleted, if it…
JonH
  • 304
7
votes
3 answers

Why creating a new MDX language instead of extending SQL?

I have a long experience with SQL, but recently began working with datawarehouse and OLAP technologies: building fact and dimension tables, that then are queried using MDX (MultiDimensional eXpressions). The problem is that MDX works with a…
DReispt
  • 173
6
votes
1 answer

Are people succeeding with OrientDB?

OrientDB looks very attractive from a functionality+license standpoint. I haven't been able to google up much in the way of reports by people who have used it. Can anyone cite particularly notable successes or failures?
bmargulies
  • 1,707
6
votes
2 answers

How does datomic handle "corrections"?

tl;dr Rich Hickey describes datomic as a system which implicitly deals with timestamps associated with data storage from my experience, data is often imperfectly stored in systems, and on many occasions needs to retroactively be corrected (ie,…
blueberryfields
  • 13,260
6
votes
5 answers

Do database tables need to have IDs?

Is an ID field is always needed in database tables? In my case I have a user with firstName, lastName and email fields. email is unique and not null, so it could be used as an ID, right? So in that case, could/should I try to remove the ID? Also I…
Arturas M
  • 571
6
votes
3 answers

What to do after accidentally erasing many database entries?

Today at work I did an update to production. The update involved replacing old items from two tables with new data. I of course did a back up of the tables before that. Well, now 6 hours after getting home I realized at shower that there was a…
rFactor
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5
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2 answers

What are some ways people handle DB change notifications?

Multiple clients can modify the DB and all need to be notified if a DB change occurs. Where I work, this is implemented with application threads that poll the DB every second or so. This doesn't strike me as a good way to do it, so I was…
patrick
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