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It’s possible to link data from one column of a
set of rows in a table to the “key” column of a
row in another table, creating a relationship be-
tween the “master” row in one table and a set
of “detail” rows in another. For example: think
of the bill for a meal at a restaurant (a row in
the Chits table) with the individual itemized en-
trees, sides and beverages as details (one or
more rows in the Chit_Items table).
To support data retrieval and other operations
(e.g. Add, Update, Delete), relational data-
bases use a special language: Structured Que-
ry Language (SQL for short, often pronounced
“sequel”). Many database programs also have
a visual front end that makes it easy to design
SQL queries that will retrieve specific subsets
of the data.
Spreadsheets
The simplest database programs are traditional
spreadsheet tools like MS Excel or the free Li-
breOffice Calc. These have a natural rows and
columns structure. It’s easy to sort the rows
based on values in various columns. You can
set filters on various columns to display only a
subset of the data. There’s also a search that
can look for specific values in a column or any-
where in the sheet. You can also include com-
putational columns and rows that aren’t part of
the actual data, but “sum up”, count, average
or perhaps show minimum and maximum val-
ues.
Spreadsheets are great for things like contact
lists, asset tracking, inventories and catalogs.
However, they don’t easily support relation-
(Continued on page 6)
5
Newsletter
Team
E
leven times a year it takes a TEAM to produce
the LCACE Newsletter. Mike McEnery
(Newsletter Editor) publishers the club newsletter to
keeping our members informed of the latest news on
computers and technology. Phil Bock submits his Presi-
dents RAM, and Lester Larkin submits the Club History.
After hours of formatting these articles and searching
for additional articles to fill the pages. Mike emails the
completed Newsletter to J.J. Johnson (Assistant Editor)
and then he converts it from Microsoft Publisher for-
mat to an PDF and FlipPage format. J.J. (webmaster)
then uploads the newsletter to the LCACE website and
sends out a message on Google Groups to inform the
members that the newsletter is available online for
members to view.
Occasionally Mikes gets some feedback from members
but he is always open for more of your comments. This
goes along with Mike asking you to submit articles to
help cut his time searching for articles from other com-
puter clubs.
APCUG (Association of Personal Computer User
Groups) gathers articles from many of their member
groups, and publishers them quarterly for other
groups to publish in their newsletters. This is conven-
ient for Mike, but as a club he would like more articles
from our members. This would highlight what our club
is doing to contribute to the world of computers and
technology.
Join the TEAM
So, if you have taken the time to completely read this
article, consider taking the time to share you experi-
ences of a new or old piece of software or equipment
by writing an article and share it with your fellow mem-
bers. Remember our moto.