Snoopy: An Assistant to the Hydrologic Program Leader

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Snoopy An Assistant to the Hydrologic Program
Leader Mike Callahan Senior Service
Hydrologist, Louisville, KY
Linux Support Any query and data list can be
saved as a Linux file. This makes it easy to
create, test, and include queries into scripts.
Also, queries and data can be printed out. Data
will be printed in a smaller font and rotated to
landscape mode if necessary.
SQL Learning Aids Snoopy is a good SQL teacher.
First, the user can see all the tables, columns,
and data in any database without SQL. In the case
of the IHFS database, a description of every
table and column is included. Second, the program
includes a Query Maker which sets up a typical
query. Third, a pop-up window with sample SQL
commands and syntax is available. Using these
tools, one can learn SQL quickly and easily.
Why Snoopy? Snoopy was designed to overcome some
of the limitations of the standard WHFS
applications such as HydroBase, HydroView, etc.
Snoopy is a graphical front end to the PostgreSQL
database manager and the SQL language. It also
has on-line help to aid the SQL novice and
contains a data dictionary for the IHFS database.

Data Lists It takes six steps to display the
phone number of an observer using HydroView. You
must repeat many of these steps to look at
another phone number. Using Snoopy takes only one
step and all the phone numbers are displayed in a
scrolling window. Many different lists can be
developed which combine data from multiple
tables. This lets the forecaster or HMT see the
data they need in the hydrologic database without
giving them the ability to edit tables as one
does with HydroBase. The user does not need to
know any SQL. This example displays flood contact
phone numbers
Ad Hoc Queries Global Editing With a knowledge
of SQL, Snoopy allows the hydrologic program
manager to answer questions about their
hydrologic service area, and to make global edits
to their data. These examples, show the SQL
commands to display a list of data collection
platforms owned by the USGS that do not report
hourly and to assign IND as the secondary backup
office for every point in the LMK hydrologic
service area