Ok, here is the idea. I am trying to build a 'simple' date planner. The problem is that I don't know what to store the dates in. I was thinking of doing it in XML, but that appears to be to complicated for my level at the moment. Any ideas for another way to store it?

There are 10 types of people - Those who understand binary, and those who don't.

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Hmm. Personally I would use XML as you wouldn't need an overly complicated file to achieve a datasource for this particular application. In any case, ill foucs on using a database since you have indicated that XML is a bit complicated for you at present.

How you setup the database largely depends on what you are comfortable with but this is how I would do it.

Table: Event_Dates
Fields: pk (int, auto inc, no dupes), eventDate (datetime)

Table: Events
Fields: pk(int, auto inc, no dupes) event_fk (int), eventName (varchar) eventDescription(varchar)

This gives you a Many-to-one relationship (one date could potentially have many events) from the Event_dates table to the events table.

You link an event to a particular date based upon the event_dates.pk and events.event_fk relationship and to do so your query may look something like:

SELECT eventName, eventDescription FROM events where event_fk = (SELECT pk FROM event_dates where Convert(varchar(10), eventDate, 101) = '04/03/2007')

This query works but also contains a pitfall. If you do a straight insert into the Event_dates table without first checking to see if the date you are trying to insert already exists, the above query will throw an error to the effect of: Subquey can only contain one result.

And really, you should never need to have more then one instance of each date in the database but, if you would have a need to have multiple instances, you could rewrite your query to this:

SELECT eventName, eventDescription FROM events where event_fk IN (SELECT pk FROM event_dates where Convert(varchar(10), eventDate, 101) = '04/03/2007')

hth.



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What does a database consist of? Is it just datatable, datacolumn, and datarow? or is there some other form of database. I would like to know so that I know what to Google. Thanks.

There are 10 types of people - Those who understand binary, and those who don't.

O.o A database, for all intents and purposes can be ANY structured file. (Text File, excel sheet, etc) But yes, by and large a Database is comproised of Rows columns and tables, regardless of the format.

I am going to go out on a whim here, but am I right in guessing that you are fairly new to programming/computers in general?

There are plenty of Database Servers out there as well as Database applications (apps that create database files) so you have plenty of choices to chose from. If you want something low end and not full featured you can go with OpenOffice's Base applicaiton or with Microsofts Access application.

If you want to go more top end with a database server your free choice (amoung others) would be MySQL and on the not so free side, you have Microsoft SQL Server.

I would probably suggest access or base so you can get your feet wet with the SQL language but, if you feel you would be ok with a full fledge Server, go get MySQL and have at it!

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There's also the free MS Sql Server 2005 Express (companion to the Express editions of the .Net development tools). It's a lighter weight version of the full version but it more than enough for someone looking to learn or develop against MS-SQL server. (The missing parts are parts that you would usually use in a production environment such as management tools and redundancy features.)

http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/sql/

-Peter