Lesson video

Hello, and welcome to lesson six in our flat-file databases unit.

I'm Andy, and in this lesson, we're going to be looking at databases in real life.

In this lesson, you'll need a computer with access to the internet.

Other than that, you'll need something to write on and something to write with.

So please clear away any distractions, then we can start.

In this lesson, you're going to use your knowledge of databases to ask and answer real-world questions.

You're going to ask questions that will need more than one field to answer them.

You're going to refine your search in a real-world context.

And you're going to review the information that you find.

So we've been looking at flat-file databases.

And a flat-file database uses a data set stored in a single file.

And these are things that a flat-file database is or does.

So a flat-file database is a collection of organised data.

It can be used to search and sort a data set.

It's stored on a computer, and it can be used to present data in different ways.

So now we're going to look at databases in real life.

Okay, there's lots of databases used in real life, and we're going to look at a flight finder database.

So this is something on the internet, and it's what people might use to book trips and holidays, and so on.

So, if we want to find a holiday, then we might use one of these flight finder databases.

So what kind of information do you think these databases would store? And what fields might these records contain? I'll give you a moment to think.

Okay, these databases pull information from lots of different places.

And here's an example from one.

So this is a record which has come back from a search, and you can see some of the fields.

So we have fields such as departure time, because you need to know when to get to the airport to get the flight.

You need to know what time it will arrive for other arrangements.

You might want this one, which is know how long the flight is.

The price is obviously quite important.

The airport you're going from, you obviously need to fly from somewhere you can get to.

And obviously, your destination wants to be where you want to go.

So we have some fields shown on here.

I'll just give a moment to look at any other record, any of the fields you might find in this record.

Okay, there's lots of other information in there, and it might be things like the airline.

Okay.

It has information about whether your bags cost more to check in.

Okay, you can take so many bags with you.

Do extra bags cost more? It has the distance of the flight.

So all of those are fields because they're different for each flight.

So, you're going to use a flight finder to actually find a flight that meets these criteria.

So I'm going to work through this example and show you first, and then you're going to have your own one to work through.

So, we're looking for a flight from Edinburgh in Scotland to Madrid in Spain.

And it needs to go on the 12th of October, and it returns on the 19th.

We're also going to look at how we can sort these results by price and time, okay.

So let's have a look at that now.

Okay, so this is the flight database we're going to try out.

This is Expedia.

There are all sorts of different ones.

We're going to try this one.

So it's got up on this page and I don't want to stay, we don't need the hotel.

We just want the flights.

So I'm choosing flights, and we're looking for a flight from Edinburgh to Madrid on the 12th of October.

So leaving from, and I need to type in where we're leaving from.

If I just start typing the word, it comes up with a list.

I can choose Edinburgh and we're going to, we're going to Madrid.

I can just start typing Madrid.

And now we can see all Madrid airports 'cause there's a few.

We are leaving on the 12th of October, so I can go and choose October 12th.

And I want a return date on the 19th.

Done.

Okay, so we've got from Edinburgh to Madrid, 12th of October, coming back on the 19th and it's a return.

Okay.

Up here, it says travellers.

So it could choose how many people are going.

I might just go with one.

So we go with one traveller at the minute.

If I click on search, then it goes off and it searches the database.

And it comes back with flights that meet our criteria or should meet our criteria.

I'm just going to close this information here, and then we can have a look.

So, we have various bits of information.

We have, this is the airline down here, Iberia.

We have how long the flight is.

We have when it leaves, when it gets in.

Okay.

And it has the price, and it has other information.

So there's quite a lot of information there.

Most of those appear to be with Iberia.

I can see as I go down, there's British Airways and KLM, and other ones.

Okay, so that's our search done.

If we look over here, there is some sort options.

So I can sort from the highest-priced one to the lowest price one.

Okay, so lowest price one is 138 pounds.

And there's also some other options in here about duration.

So we could look for the shortest flights and so on.

So there's things there.

There's also which one arrives earliest, which one arrives latest.

So in the sort, there are a number of different things we can choose, and it will sort what it's found by these things.

We've also got some further options down here.

This is called filtering.

And on the filtering, we can choose whether there's one stop, no stops.

So the no stop is listed as direct flight.

So this one, we only have the option of a one stop.

So, that actually stops somewhere else.

Some of them even stop at two places.

Let's look at that one, and you can see it goes from EDI, which is Edinburgh to LHR, which I know is London Heathrow, then to Madrid, okay.

So that, you have to change at a different airport.

Sometimes there's an option here saying direct flights, which is no changes at all.

I can also pick departure times, so I can decide that actually I want to get going, and I want to leave in the morning, so I can click on that and it'll re-sort my flights.

So the information here is morning departures only.

Okay, I can also switch that off again, and I might go and choose evening, or I might choose, maybe I want to arrive in the afternoon for some reason.

So I could choose that.

And it will find the arrival times, which is the second time.

That's the time at the airport you're going to, okay.

So up and down here, there's all sorts of options.

So we can choose whether the flight stops or it doesn't.

We can choose which particular airlines.

These numbers in brackets tell us how many results there are for each of those.

And then we can choose departure times and arrival times.

So there's all sorts of options there.

And remember, we can sort it as well using the sort option at the top.

So in a moment, you're going to have a go at this yourselves.

Okay, so this is an example from my search, and just to show you that's the option if you want direct flights.

So those flights don't stop anywhere as opposed to ones which stop elsewhere.

Okay, so your task is to use the flight finder to find a flight which meets the conditions on the worksheet.

So please pause the video now.

Okay, I hope you might actually get on with that.

So we'll have a look at those together then.

So the first one was a flight from Manchester to New York on the 1st of December.

So I need to change my search 'cause I've still got the one I was using.

So we're going from Manchester, MAN, and we're going to New York.

Okay, and I've got all New York airports.

There's three international airports there in New York.

And the date was the 1st of December.

So I'm going to click through, and 1st December, coming back on the 15th.

Search.

So it goes away and it looks, and then we can look at the further options.

Okay.

It's still having a bit of a look through the database.

There's quite a lot of information from different places it's checking.

So once we've got that, we need to find out is it possible to find a direct flight that goes from Manchester in the morning.

Okay, and it says we need to use stops and departure filters.

So, it says there's four direct flights.

So I need to choose that.

And then I need to come down here and look, can I get a flight in the morning? Okay, so if I choose that, there we are.

It says, no, there are no flights which are direct and leave in the morning.

So if I clear that, I can go back and see what options there are.

Okay, so it says there are four direct flights, and these are the times that they leave at, okay, 4:15.

So what's the flight cost if you want to arrive in the morning? So we can try that arrival time in the morning, choose that.

Again, there's no flights.

So we can't do that one.

That flight actually isn't available.

And then the last one to try out is what about in the evening? And then, so the afternoon flights that leave Manchester arrive in the evening.

Okay, so different flights will leave at different times on different days.

They aren't always set as these afternoon and morning arrivals.

But in the ones we were looking for, if we were asked to find those things out, some of those flights just don't exist on that date.

Okay, so your next task now is to, you're going to do some further searching, some further refining to see if you can find flights that meet the criteria that you're given.

Okay, so pause the video now.

Okay, so let's have a look at those then.

So I've still got Manchester departure, New York arrival, 1st of December to the 15th, that's all correct.

The first one was a direct flight.

There's four direct flights from Manchester, and they all go at 4:15.

And it tells me that they're on, there are several different airlines here.

So I should have noted down the prices, which is there, the airline departure time, and the flight's duration, direct flight, seven hours and 50 minutes.

I'm going to change that now to the two-stop because that was to search for.

So here we are, this is start location, end location.

And one, two stops with Air Canada.

Tells me when it's leaving, when it arrives, and that's nearly 14 hours flying time, including stops.

Okay, and then the last one, if I untick that, is the flight that arrives earliest in the morning.

So I've got arrival times, but this is just going to pull out the flights that arrive.

So it needs to be earliest in the morning.

And if I look at those, I've actually only ever got afternoons.

So earliest in the morning, if I choose that, we've got arrival earliest, let's have a look and see what we come up with.

And it arrives at 12:55.

So it's just into the afternoon.

So there isn't an earliest in the morning, but that is the earliest flight of the day.

Okay, so again, it shows us the flying time and that one has one stop.

Okay, so what you're going to do now is you've got another further task, which is you need to imagine that you're a travel agent and you're arranging flights for somebody else.

And then the worksheet to tells you what they want the flights to be.

And what you need to do is you need to find three flights that fit the scenarios.

You need to pick out what you think is the best option, and note down why you think that's the best option.

It might be because it's cheapest, or it's the shortest flying time, or it's a combination of the two.

And what you should do is you should grab screenshots and you can type, and you can put that information together into a word process document, or into slides.

So you can choose how to put it together.

But imagine that you are finding information for somebody else, and put it together in a way that you could explain to them these are the flights, these are the times, this appears to be the best option because.

Okay, so that's your task.

Please pause the video now.

Okay, I hope you managed that.

Here's mine.

I was being Sky Travel Limited.

The flight options were London to Singapore, leaving on the 11th of May, returning on the 19th.

The lowest cost direct flight was with British Airways, that was direct.

And the journey time was 13 hours, 10 minutes, and it cost 389 pounds.

So it left on the 11th and arrived on the 12th.

So it was an overnight flight.

And actually, that was the recommended option I would recommend to the customer because it was the shortest flying time, and it was almost the cheapest.

So the second option the customer asked for was with one stop.

And actually it was a few pounds less, but it was a little bit longer in terms of journey time.

That was with KLM Airlines.

And that changed at Amsterdam.

The last option was to get the earliest in the morning.

That was very expensive.

It was a way, almost a thousand pounds more than the other flights.

It was with China Airlines.

And actually, it was 20 hours journey time.

And it actually meant it arrived, it took two nights.

So there was two overnights.

So although it arrived earliest in the morning, the other two flights arrived the day before.

So I'd recommend to the customer that they had this option for their flight.

Okay, in this lesson, you used a real-life database to find solutions to a flight finding challenge.

You also presented your findings in a document.

So that's it for this lesson.

If you'd like to share your work, please ask your parents or carer to share it for you, and they can do so on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.

And it needs to be tagged @OakNational and #LearnwithOak.

That's it for this lesson and for this unit.