SQLite over MySQL?
Bruce Van Allen
On 2011-06-17, John Delacour wrote:
>I'm afraid I can't advise since I can't stand MySQL and find life much easier with SQLite.
This aroused my curiosity because I have to switch some Perl
programs written long ago with various flat-file data tables
accessed via howe-brew parsing to something more transferable.
None of my uses has more than a few hundred thousand records,
and most have far fewer.
Would you care to say a bit more about your preference? Do you
use the Perl DBI with SQLite? If something that reflects your
views can be read elsewhere, please point.
CAUTION: I'm not interested in enflaming a huge debate about the
merits and demerits of these and other database systems, their
developers, companies that "own" them, etc. Just a bit of
practical curiosity...
Thanks.
- Bruce
_bruce__van_allen__santa_cruz_ca_
Chas. Owens
SQLite is definitely more of a pleasure to work with than MySQL, but
it is not suitable for all applications. This text from [SQLite's
site][1] sums it up nicely:
There are advantages and disadvantages to being serverless. The main
advantage is that there is no separate server process to install,
setup, configure, initialize, manage, and troubleshoot. This is one
reason why SQLite is a "zero-configuration" database engine. Programs
that use SQLite require no administrative support for setting up the
database engine before they are run. Any program that is able to
access the disk is able to use an SQLite database.
On the other hand, a database engine that uses a server can provide
better protection from bugs in the client application - stray pointers
in a client cannot corrupt memory on the server. And because a server
is a single persistent process, it is able to control database access
with more precision, allowing for finer grain locking and better
concurrency.
You access SQLite DBs in Perl the same way as MySQL DBs, with a DBD
module using the DBI. The primary difference is that the entire DB
engine is contained within the DBD::SQLite module. There is no setup,
you just say
#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
use DBI;
my $dbh = DBI->connect("dbi:SQLite:dbname=foo.db", "", "");
and if the file foo.db didn't exist already, it is created. That is
it; you have a database now.
That said, it doesn't provide some things you might expect. So far as
I know, it provides no security layer. there is no username or
password to connect, no users own tables (and therefore there are no
privileges to grant). The database does no type checking. If you
declare a column as being an integer, there is nothing to stop you
from storing a string in it (this is a simplification of its dynamic
typing, but an integer column can contain "fred").
[1]: http://www.sqlite.org/serverless.html
--
Chas. Owens
wonkden.net
The most important skill a programmer can have is the ability to read.
(Randal L. Schwartz)
Chas> That said, it doesn't provide some things you might expect. So far as
Chas> I know, it provides no security layer. there is no username or
Chas> password to connect, no users own tables (and therefore there are no
Chas> privileges to grant). The database does no type checking. If you
Chas> declare a column as being an integer, there is nothing to stop you
Chas> from storing a string in it (this is a simplification of its dynamic
Chas> typing, but an integer column can contain "fred").
There is no longer a gap between SQLite and PostgreSQL that MySQL could
fill nicely, as it had in the past. They overlap in the middle.
MySQL should not be used for new starts.
Or, as I say, "Friends don't let friends use MySQL".
--
Randal L. Schwartz - Stonehenge Consulting Services, Inc. - +1 503 777 0095
<mer...@stonehenge.com> <URL:http://www.stonehenge.com/merlyn/>
Smalltalk/Perl/Unix consulting, Technical writing, Comedy, etc. etc.
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(Randal L. Schwartz)
Eberhard> I beg to differ, if one writes Perl code (and even if one only
Eberhard> dabbles like the elderly Gynaecologist writing this) one can figure out
Eberhard> how to set up and run mysql, which in my case involves fink or even
Eberhard> PostgreSQL which now comes with Lion.
Eberhard> SQLite has its moments but if there ever is a need to upgrade to a
Eberhard> proper multi-user environment it may come back to bite me.
The problem is not knowledge of how to set up MySQL, but that MySQL is
not the the thing to set up.
At a minimum, if you need MySQL, install MariaDB.
If you need an actual database, consider whether SQLite will do, or
whether you need more power, in which case, install PostgreSQL.