On 10/26/2015 02:29 PM, David Blomstrom wrote:
> Sorry for the late response. I don't have Internet access at home, so
> I only post from the library or a WiFi cafe.
>
> Anyway, where do I begin?
>
> Regarding my "usage patterns," I use spreadsheets (Apple's Numbers
> program) to organize data. I then save it as a CSV file and import it
> into a database table. It would be very hard to break with that
> tradition, because I don't know of any other way to organize my data.
>
> On the other hand, I have a column (Rank) that identifies different
> taxonomic levels (kingdom, class, etc.). So I can easily sort a table
> into specific taxonomic levels and save one level at a time for a
> database table.
>
> There is one problem, though. I can easily put all the vertebrate
> orders and even families into a table. But genera might be harder, and
> species probably won't work; there are simply too many. My spreadsheet
> program is almost overwhelmed by fish species alone. The only solution
> would be if I could import Mammals.csv, then import Birds.csv,
> Reptiles.csv, etc. But that might be kind of tedious, especially if I
> have to make multiple updates.
>
Yes I suspect you spreadsheet will be limited in rows, but of course you
can send all the spreadsheets to a single table in the database. If
that's what you want. You don't have to, but you see mention of tables
millions of records routinely. On the other hand, if performance
becomes an issue with the single table approach you might want to look
at "partitioning". But I would be surprised if you had to go there.
What is your data source? How much hand-entry are you doing? There are
tools which (seriously) upgrade the basic 'COPY into <table>' command.
> As for "attributes," I'll post my table's schema, with a description,
> next.
>
