[Tfug] Managing data

[Claude Rubinson]

On Thu, Dec 10, 2009 at 11:31:51PM -0700, Zack Williams wrote:
> > I'm trying to figure out how best to manage the data for my
> > dissertation, and I was wondering if anyone on the list might have
> > some ideas.  Here's the deal: I like keeping my data as plain text for
> > a variety of reasons (primarily that it's easy to maintain and that I
> > can keep it under version control).  The structure of the data,
> > however, is fairly complex so I keep the data normalized (i.e., spread
> > across a number of different tables) and the ability to join tables in
> > a SQL-like fashion would be great (i.e., inner and outer joins, rather
> > than having to code it up in awk, which is my current strategy).
> 
> Databases tend to hammers that make everything look like a nail...
> 
> Depending on the nature of the data, would a version control system
> (subversion, git, etc...) be appropriate?

You misunderstand.  I'm already keeping my data as plain text and
under version control.  It's simply that I also want to be able to
execute SQL-like queries against it.  I was saying that I can easily
write a script that replicates the data to a SQL database for this
purpose, but was just wondering if (a) somebody might have already
written such a script or (b) if people might have different ways of
skinning this cat.

Claude