Advanced Seminar DB

Running head: DATA 1

DATA 9

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Student’s Name

Institutional Affiliation

Data

There are many approaches of managing and storing data. Spreadsheets and databases are some of the most common approaches of handling data. The choice one uses should be based on ease of use, analytical capabilities, and the efficiency of the system, data integrity, among other reasons. A spreadsheet has data arranged in rows and columns. One of the most common spreadsheets packages is Microsoft Excel. Databases have data arranged in structured ways.

For my data, I will use databases. This is because they have many advantages over spreadsheets. First, they enhance data quality checks. This is because databases allow certain variables as the only possible entries. For instance, if the input is either male or female, the database will not accept any other entry. Databases also have a feature that check for duplication, something which is not available in spreadsheets (Matthews, 2010). Another reason for the use of databases is that databases allows the integration of data, a function that spreadsheets can also perform but through custom programming which may require additional technical expertise. Databases are also resource efficient if large volumes of data are involved compared to spreadsheets. Databases also allow for user efficiency because the display of data can be tailored to a user’s need. For example, a user may get the information he needs from a database easily without going through all the data contained in the database. Databases also ensure cost efficiency when large volumes of data are involved (Matthews, 2010). However, the volume of data may determine whether to use a spreadsheet or a database. In some situations where simplicity is desired and the volume of data is low, it may be advantageous to use a spreadsheet such as Excel because many people are aware of how to use it.

To organize my data into a database, I will name the database, identify the objects, define and name a table for each object, identify the attributes associated with each object, define and name columns, and determine the primary key.

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