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
