[Discuss] SQL discussion

[Richard Pieri]

On 1/14/2015 4:22 PM, Mike Small wrote:
> |   x |   y |  z |     t | Humidity | Pressure |
> |-----+-----+----+-------+----------+----------|
> | 100 | -10 | 12 | 12:05 |       40 |    1.302 |
> ...
> |-----+-----+----+-------+----------+----------|
>
>
> Not what you had in mind?

It works, but I call this an example of the quip that when the only tool 
you have is a RDBMS then all data look like tables.

In a multi-dimensional sparse array database your X and Y axes might be 
latitude and longitude, your Z axis might be altitude, your T axis is 
time. Temperature, humidity and pressure are some of the actual data at 
a given intersection of these axes. Keep in mind that this is still 
wholly structured data which makes it relatively easy to represent in 
tabular form. Less-structured data won't fit so easily without resorting 
to hacks like embedding whole JSON objects in table cells.

-- 
Rich P.