MySQL Archaeology

When I was first playing with databases I was putting lots of stray stuff into mine. It was pretty fun, actually.

mysql> select want_id, artist, title from music_wanted; +————-+———————————-+————————————————+
| want_id | artist | title |
+————-+———————————-+————————————————+
| 0001 | Anderson, Laurie | Mr. Heartbreak |
| 0002 | Cocker, Joe | Greatest Hits |
| 0003 | Costello, Elvis | Armed Forces |
| 0004 | Cure | Mixed Up |
| 0005 | De La Soul | 3 Feet High and Rising |
| 1005 | Fishbone | In Your Face |
| 0006 | Hendrix, Jimi | Experiences |
| 0007 | Holliday, Billie | The Billie Holiday Collection |
| 0008 | Hooker, John Lee | Best of John Lee Hooker |
| 0009 | Jackson, Joe | Body & Soul |
| 0010 | Jackson, Joe | Beat Crazy |
| 0011 | Marley, Bob | Exodus |
| 0012 | Nine Inch Nails | Broken |
| 0013 | Oingo Boingo | 4 Song EP |
| 0014 | Pet Shop Boys | Discography |
| 0015 | Red Hot Chili Peppers | One Hot Minute |
| 0016 | REM | Murmur |
| 0017 | REM | Chronic Town |
| 0018 | Soul Coughing | Ruby Vroom |
| 0019 | Soundtrack | Adventures of Baron Munchausen |
| 0020 | Soundtrack | Stormy Weather |
| 0021 | Talking Heads | Little Creatures |
| 0022 | Talking Heads | True Stories |
| 0023 | Waits, Tom | Nighthawks at the Diner |
| 0024 | Waters, Muddy | I’m Ready | +————-+———————————-+————————————————+
25 rows in set (0.00 sec)

Of course, I was a little naive about usable data structures, here’s the design of that music_wanted table:

mysql> describe music_wanted;
+————-+———————+———+——-+————-+———-+
| Field | Type | Null | Key | Default | Extra |
+————-+———————+———+——-+————-+———-+
| want_id | varchar(4) | | PRI | | |
| artist | varchar(60) | YES | | NULL | |
| title | varchar(60) | | | | |
| comment | varchar(200) | YES | | NULL | |
+————-+———————+———+——-+————-+———-+
4 rows in set (0.00 sec)

Now, why I would use a VARCHAR of length 4, formatted like a number as a primary key? It just seems sort of silly now.

And the comment field is a 200 character string, rather than TEXT?

Very silly.

Also, I think I have a few more of those now, bought used. Some of those I still want to replace with CDs, but I’m in no hurry, really. I mean, it’s been years.

Now, for little reminders to myself (like books to read or music to check out) I have this blog to keep records, so it’s time to…

 mysql> drop table music_wanted; Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec) 

And poof! my little database table evaporates in a puff of logic.*

*Bonus points to you if you recognize that phrase