A1 Journal article (refereed)
Teaching tip : a notation for planning SQL queries (2019)

Taipalus, T. (2019). Teaching tip : a notation for planning SQL queries. Journal of Information Systems Education, 30(3), 160-166. http://jise.org/Volume30/n3/JISEv30n3p160.pdf

JYU authors or editors

Publication details

All authors or editors: Taipalus, Toni

Journal or series: Journal of Information Systems Education

ISSN: 1055-3096

Publication year: 2019

Volume: 30

Issue number: 3

Pages range: 160-166

Publisher: Information Systems and Computing Academic Professionals

Place of Publication: Wilmington

Publication country: United States

Publication language: English

Persistent website address: http://jise.org/Volume30/n3/JISEv30n3p160.pdf

Publication open access: Openly available

Publication channel open access: Open Access channel

Abstract

Structured Query Language (SQL) is still the de facto database query language widely used in industry and taught in almost all university level database courses. The role of SQL is further strengthened by the emergence of NewSQL systems which use SQL as their query language as well as some NoSQL systems, e.g., Cassandra and DynamoDB, which base their query languages on SQL. Even though the syntax of SQL is relatively simple when compared to programming languages, studies suggest that students struggle with simple concepts due to working memory constraints when learning SQL. This teaching tip presents a novel, simple, and intuitive notation for planning more complex SQL queries, which 1) facilitates the learning of SQL by providing students with a big picture of a particular data demand in regard to the database structure and 2) separates the logic of a data demand from the syntax and semantics of SQL, thus alleviating the strain on the student’s short-term memory. The notation can also be applied when discussing SQL semantics during the teaching process without focusing on the syntactical nuances of the language.

Keywords: SQL; query languages; information management systems; visualisation; teaching and instruction

Free keywords: structured query language (SQL); query language; data management; data visualization; teaching tip

Contributing organizations

Ministry reporting: Yes

Reporting Year: 2019

JUFO rating: 1