In the latest installment of 'Who, Me?', a reader named Pete recounts an incident from his time at a sports website where he worked with a MySQL database. His task involved parsing XML files to update match results, including attendance. When a journalist noted a report with zero attendance, Pete attempted to fix the parsing error but inadvertently set every match's attendance to 450. This blunder led to absurd inaccuracies across numerous events, highlighting the potential pitfalls of handling live data without careful checks.
Pete explained how the data for football matches, including attendance, was stored in a straightforward MySQL database, which he updated through a Perl program.
After a journalist pointed out a reporting error of zero attendance, Pete's fix mistakenly set the crowd for every match to 450, leading to widespread discrepancies.
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