f l u e n c y f u m b l e

Now is as good a time as any to point this out:

“Fluency Fumble,” the consonant title to this humble blog, never intended the kind of “fumble” that has landed the 2006-07 Steelers far afield of playoff hopes. That kind of fluency slip-up has happened along my path to better understanding IT, surely, but I hardly advertise it.

To the contrary, the kind of “fluency fumble” I imagined that very first week, when logging in for the first time, was a kind of unscripted stumble in a dark basement … arms out, grabbing everywhere, aware that the elusive pull-cord for a bare lightbulb is somewhere nearby.

Occasionally, I find the pull-cord to illuminate the room.
This was one of those weeks.

Our FLAG was charged with teaching the class about Snyder Chapter 15, “Database Queries.” A quick glance through the pages indicated to us that it was intensely technical. We elected to split things up, and I (why, God?) agreed to learn Structured Query Language and present it to the class.

As it so happens, I am an employee of GSPIA professor who chose that week to assign me to a database project employing many of Snyder’s concepts of table design and query. The work went toward the benefit of pittsburghtoday.org, a new collection of regional indicators designed to better inform local citizens about the region’s comparative status in a number of categories.

Here I was, faced with the daunting task of understanding database queries so thoroughly that I would not only be able to present it to the class, but also produce a good amount of analytical work based on database principles … all in the same week.

After a couple of quick meetings with Jeremy (thanks, Jeremy!), I gained enough information to work with the Snyder text and a number of online tutorials to find the competencies I needed. It wasn’t until the FLAG presentation and the completion of my project for the professor that I realized exactly how much I had learned — essentially, my new skill set comprised organizing various tables in an MS Access database, relating them with added master key variables, running queries to sift through large piles of information for very specific entries, combining variables to view data in new ways, and (of course) a good amount of troubleshooting.

SQL really only confused me on one count — why use it? I contacted a friend, Eric P., who works as a bioinformatics developer here in the city and apparently uses SQL every day. He insists that it’s faster, simpler and much more flexible than running queries through the design wizard in MS Access.

Sure, Eric. Probably simpler once you learn the language, eh?
For now, I’m quite satisfied to have made it through the week — and I’m certain that the new database skills will come in handy. Probably too soon.

For your perusal, here are a few of the SQL lessons I found most helpful:
w3schools.com
— includes SQL sandbox
http://www.sql-tutorial.net/
— nice, simple interface
http://www.sqlcourse.com/
— riddled with ads, but includes lots of explanation