Author Archives: Colin Hoad
Remove CSV text qualifiers within a field using Python
Have you ever tried to import a CSV into a database and found that it won’t load because one of your CSV fields has a text qualifier inside the field itself? In this post I look at how to resolve this issue using a few lines of Python code.
How to forward engineer SQL scripts from Microsoft Visio
Ever wanted to forward engineer a SQL script of DDL statements to automatically generate the tables based on a Visio entity relationship diagram (ERD)? In the steps below, I will explain what you need to do in order to install the Forward Engineer plugin for Microsoft Visio 2010, based on the original work by Alberto Ferrari.
Memory: what is a memory address?
How, exactly, does a computer know where to load a program into memory, and how does that program then access and retrieve information from memory? The key to answering both of these questions lies in the concept of memory addressing, which will be the subject of this post.
Memory: how computer programs work
In this post, we will explore how memory is actually used by computer programs. In so doing, we will also examine the concept of memory addressing and why it is fundamental to the workings of any computer program.
Memory: how a computer stores and accesses information
How does a computer ‘remember’ something, and furthermore how is it able to recall some things but not others? In this post, we will explore the concept of memory, what it means and how a computer uses it.
How does a computer store data: dates
In this post, we will examine the concept of dates and time to see how it is possible to store them in computer memory.
How does a computer store data: text
In this post, we will look at how a computer is able to store and represent text – once again, using just ones and zeros.
How does a computer store data: numbers
We will examine exactly how data is stored by a computer. In this post, we will look at numbers.
Binary: how everything boils down to ones and zeros
Just how can meaningful information be rendered into a series of ones and zeros in the first place? In this post, we will look at the architecture of a computer, how programming languages are translated and – ultimately – how everything can be captured by a computer in binary.
Hashing data: a one way street
Most of us are familiar with the concept of data encryption: masking meaningful data so that it can’t be understood by anyone besides the person or machine it is intended for. It’s what makes secure data transactions on the internet possible, and it underpins any system that provides secure access using a password. We provide a password […]
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