Fun with MySQL

My friend Steve Higley over at The Higley 1000 has been having a ball with his website. If you make a quick visit (don’t forget to come back here!) you can read the results of his research into the racial makeup of the most affluent neighborhoods in the US.

One thing I’ve learned about his research is that there is no end to it! The data is constantly refined, constantly updated based on the latest info available. You can well imagine what a mess things might become if it were left up to an individual to bring all the pages in his website up to date every time his results are updated.

Ah, but there’s a great solution - MySQL! Yay!

With a fair amount of prodding I was able to convince him to upload all his data to a MySQL database, which then in turn is called upon by the server to generate up-to-date lists on his site. This has turned out to be a real leap forward for him, as it allows him to visualize the changes almost immediately. Having poured over the data again and again over the years, he has an innate sense of how things should line up after any given changes.

For me it’s been a lot of fun to actually use a MySQL database for something useful, rather than just fooling around with it. Given that the hosting company already had MySQL loaded and ready to go, it made for a pretty easy setup. It was a simple matter to use phpMyAdmin to set up some tables on the server, then upload a file directly into the database to populate it with data.

Rather than try and teach an old dog new tricks, I set up a system in which Steve is able to update his research on his personal computer using one or more Excel spreadsheets. The spreadsheets are then saved as CSV files, which are able to be uploaded directly to MySQL.

This has worked just great for both of us. His site stays up to date, less editing for me, pretty much win-win. Hmmmmm… makes me wanna dream up another reason for using a database on MY site.