Best practices for SQL client development

Suppose your client has asked you to alter an existing table and change the format of the field that tracks the age of the client from an integer to a float. After making this change, you find that the reports and programs that use the data are now producing errors. It turns out that many other dependencies were relying on the data to be formatted in a specific way, and now it has been changed.

To avoid these types of issues, you should follow several best practices while developing robust SQL databases. First, you should install a development MySQL server, which allows you to change and test your data without it negatively influencing the clients who use the data.

Installing a development MySQL server

When you develop an application that interacts with a database, you separate your instances into two separate databases – a production database and a development database. A production database is a database that contains live...