Databases eh, why MySQL?

One of the key attributes of a data scientist is the capacity to obtain raw data from a variety of sources including databases. Relational databases, such as MySQL, are widely used in a variety of settings to facilitate persistent, structured storage of data that may be regularly used by a large body of users. MySQL is open source with a free community edition (helps adoption), widely used and has similar syntax to other SQL variants, making it a good tool to have in the bag.

Strategy

As part of my development, I have gained skills through formal means (i.e MOOCs), such as Coursera, which have a more “classroom” structure and schedule, as well as more “informal” means, mainly in the form of online tutorials.

One series of courses that I have been interested in for some time focuses on data warehousing, which is a skillset that I feel will be useful to me. Given that time is a scare commodity, I haven’t had the time to devote to focused study. However, this site affords me the opportunity to organise and retain information from both formal and informal sources, such as W3Schools and tutorialspoint while personalising my learning outcomes flexibly in a way that makes the new knowledge most useful (and organised).

In light of this, I figured that it would be wise to take the opportunity to familiarise myself with SQL by learning MySQL at my own pace, to reduce the learning curve in relation to further study, while gaining a skill that I can immediately direct to assist me as I go. I do quite a lot of work in R, and have found situations where working with large tables and spreadsheets was cumbersome.

Bottom line…

I know that R can handle MySQL, so now is a good time to get my hands dirty! !

… now to install the thing !