Re: Slightly OT MySQL question

in reply to Slightly OT MySQL question

If you need any help (googled or otherwise) to answer that question then you're clearly not qualified for the position in question and should probably stop wasting their time and yours (and, well, ours). Not to mention you need help with your reading comprehension since "fixed width" is clearly in reference to "fixed width flat files" (not that a googled answer on that is really going to get you through the interview process either).

(Yes, I'm being slightly cruel and curmudgeonly; it's virtual Monday. BMSMA.)

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Comment on Re: Slightly OT MySQL question

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Re^2: Slightly OT MySQL question by papidave (Pilgrim) on Feb 22, 2008 at 19:33 UTC
I was in the field for years before I realized that my system admin code (grep, awk, cut, on flat files) qualified as 'database' work. Thus, even if this isn't strictly a valid Perlish question, I don't think that the question is inherently bad. Note: This may have something to do with the fact that half of my posts might be invalidated if we insisted that I actually provide technical insight on everything I say. :) In any event, if you treat a flat file as a database table, each line of input becomes a database "row." In that context, you can identify "fields" in that table by their relative position in the line (fixed width), or by `split /x/` on some character (delimited). If you `sysread()` your data, I guess you could treat it as binary. Does anyone do this any more? I don't think I've done it since I worked (in C) under VAX/VMS, and it's mostly been supplanted in the database world by BLOBs (binary large objects). Having now said this, if you are trying to get a database job that isn't entry level, you're probably overmatched (as Fletch has stated). But that said, I never object to people wanting to grow in knowledge. If you show a willingness to make the effort to learn, it may just get you where you want to be.	[reply] [d/l] [select]

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Re^2: Slightly OT MySQL question
by papidave (Pilgrim) on Feb 22, 2008 at 19:33 UTC

Note: This may have something to do with the fact that half of my posts might be invalidated if we insisted that I actually provide technical insight on everything I say. :)

In any event, if you treat a flat file as a database table, each line of input becomes a database "row." In that context, you can identify "fields" in that table by their relative position in the line (fixed width), or by split /x/ on some character (delimited). If you sysread() your data, I guess you could treat it as binary. Does anyone do this any more? I don't think I've done it since I worked (in C) under VAX/VMS, and it's mostly been supplanted in the database world by BLOBs (binary large objects).

Having now said this, if you are trying to get a database job that isn't entry level, you're probably overmatched (as Fletch has stated). But that said, I never object to people wanting to grow in knowledge. If you show a willingness to make the effort to learn, it may just get you where you want to be.

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