simplified data type table

[alexthrelkeld]

If this pull request addresses an open issue on the repository, please add 'Closes #NN' below, where NN is the issue number.
Closes #316

Please briefly summarise the changes made in the pull request, and the reason(s) for making these changes.
Simplified the changes to the descriptions of the data types in SQLite, since SQLite & the DB Browser for SQLite only use these data types anyway. Though, I don't believe the discussion in #316 was quite correct about exactly what the data types are, and went by the documentation for SQLite: https://www.sqlite.org/datatype3.html

If any relevant discussions have taken place elsewhere, please provide links to these.

Details

For more guidance on how to contribute changes to a Carpentries project, please review the Contributing Guide and Code of Conduct.

Please keep in mind that lesson Maintainers are volunteers and it may be some time before they can respond to your contribution. Although not all contributions can be incorporated into the lesson materials, we appreciate your time and effort to improve the curriculum. If you have any questions about the lesson maintenance process or would like to volunteer your time as a contribution reviewer, please contact The Carpentries Team at team@carpentries.org.

[github-actions]

🆗 Pre-flight checks passed 😃

This pull request has been checked and contains no modified workflow files, spoofing, or invalid commits.

It should be safe to Approve and Run the workflows that need maintainer approval.

[adamancer]

Hi @amlaenxc! Thanks for this pull request! I agree that including data types that do not appear in SQLite is confusing, and this seems like a good change to simplify the lesson a bit. I put a few suggestions here, let me know if you have any thoughts about them.

[adamancer]

I would not count on learners knowing what binary data is. You might include examples (image file, etc.)

Is BLOB in SQLite always binary? That's generally what BLOB implies but the definition here suggests the BLOB format just stores the data as is.

[alexthrelkeld]

I'm not exactly sure what the documentation means for the BLOB datatype with regards to whether it is always stored as raw binary. In any case, I updated the description in the table to avoid referencing "binary data" and hopefully be more understandable.

[adamancer]

I agree that the quick reference table is a lot for the lesson but would like to retain this in learners/sql-cheat-sheet.md.

[alexthrelkeld]

I've moved that quick reference table to learners/sql-cheat-sheet.md, and added a column for SQLite since that is the main database platform used in this workshop.

[alexthrelkeld]

Hi Adam, I think I have addressed your suggestions, but I haven't heard back from you yet, so I thought I'd ping you. (Though this is my first time doing something like this, so apologies if I missed something or shouldn't have expected a response.) Cheers, Alex

…

On Wed, Apr 2, 2025 at 11:47 AM Adam Mansur ***@***.***> wrote: ***@***.**** commented on this pull request. Hi @amlaenxc <https://github.com/amlaenxc>! Thanks for this pull request! I agree that including data types that do not appear in SQLite is confusing, and this seems like a good change to simplify the lesson a bit. I put a few suggestions here, let me know if you have any thoughts about them. ------------------------------ In episodes/00-sql-introduction.md <#385 (comment)> : > | Data type | Description | | ----------------------------------------------------- | :------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -| CHARACTER(n) | Character string. Fixed-length n | -| VARCHAR(n) or CHARACTER VARYING(n) | Character string. Variable length. Maximum length n | -| BINARY(n) | Binary string. Fixed-length n | -| BOOLEAN | Stores TRUE or FALSE values | -| VARBINARY(n) or BINARY VARYING(n) | Binary string. Variable length. Maximum length n | -| INTEGER(p) | Integer numerical (no decimal). | -| SMALLINT | Integer numerical (no decimal). | -| INTEGER | Integer numerical (no decimal). | -| BIGINT | Integer numerical (no decimal). | -| DECIMAL(p,s) | Exact numerical, precision p, scale s. | -| NUMERIC(p,s) | Exact numerical, precision p, scale s. (Same as DECIMAL) | -| FLOAT(p) | Approximate numerical, mantissa precision p. A floating number in base 10 exponential notation. | +| TEXT | Character string | +| BLOB | Raw binary data | I would not count on learners knowing what binary data is. You might include examples (image file, etc.) Is BLOB in SQLite always binary? That's generally what BLOB implies but the definition here <https://sqlite.org/datatype3.html> suggests the BLOB format just stores the data as is. ------------------------------ In episodes/00-sql-introduction.md <#385 (comment)> : > | Data type | Description | | ----------------------------------------------------- | :------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -| CHARACTER(n) | Character string. Fixed-length n | -| VARCHAR(n) or CHARACTER VARYING(n) | Character string. Variable length. Maximum length n | -| BINARY(n) | Binary string. Fixed-length n | -| BOOLEAN | Stores TRUE or FALSE values | -| VARBINARY(n) or BINARY VARYING(n) | Binary string. Variable length. Maximum length n | -| INTEGER(p) | Integer numerical (no decimal). | -| SMALLINT | Integer numerical (no decimal). | -| INTEGER | Integer numerical (no decimal). | -| BIGINT | Integer numerical (no decimal). | -| DECIMAL(p,s) | Exact numerical, precision p, scale s. | -| NUMERIC(p,s) | Exact numerical, precision p, scale s. (Same as DECIMAL) | -| FLOAT(p) | Approximate numerical, mantissa precision p. A floating number in base 10 exponential notation. | +| TEXT | Character string | Would lean toward "text string" instead ------------------------------ In episodes/00-sql-introduction.md <#385 (comment)> : > | REAL | Approximate numerical | -| FLOAT | Approximate numerical | -| DOUBLE PRECISION | Approximate numerical | -| DATE | Stores year, month, and day values | -| TIME | Stores hour, minute, and second values | -| TIMESTAMP | Stores year, month, day, hour, minute, and second values | -| INTERVAL | Composed of a number of integer fields, representing a period of time, depending on the type of interval | -| ARRAY | A set-length and ordered collection of elements | -| MULTISET | A variable-length and unordered collection of elements | -| XML | Stores XML data | - -### SQL Data Type Quick Reference {#datatypediffs} I agree that the quick reference table is a lot for the lesson but would like to retain this in learners/sql-cheat-sheet.md. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#385 (review)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/A6MJN5LFPVGJPQIMPS3DQHD2XQWE5AVCNFSM6AAAAAB2KHD6ZGVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43YUDVNRWFEZLROVSXG5CSMV3GSZLXHMZDOMZXGIZTENZRGM> . You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[jd-foster]

Hi Alex, thanks for the contribution and sorry for the delay. I have done a pass over the information and fixed some of the database specifics and general formatting & wording. Please take a look and see if you're happy with this.

@adamancer I would appreciate your comments.

[alexthrelkeld]

Yes, that seems good to me!