Like Open Source software, Open Source database engines (DBE's) are taking the IT industry by storm, for two reasons: first, because they are free, of course, and second, because they are much more powerful as opposed to traditional, paid DBMS's. The three most famous Open Source DBE's are SQLite, MongoDB and of course, everyone's favorite, MySQL. Let's discuss each one in detail.
SQLite
Contrary to popular belief, it's not pronounced S-Q-L-Lite, but rather S-Q-Lite. It supports up to 2^64 rows (wow!). It is great mainly for three reasons:
SQLite
Contrary to popular belief, it's not pronounced S-Q-L-Lite, but rather S-Q-Lite. It supports up to 2^64 rows (wow!). It is great mainly for three reasons:
- Connecting to an SQLite database creates a .db file, which can easily be transported from one place to another using a flash drive or e-mail (it's size is freakishly small). So you can have multiple copies of the same database on multiple systems.
- It is a great starting point for people new to databases and their connectivity to software, websites etc.
- It provides an easy and lightweight testing mechanism. What I mean to say is that you can easily test your website/software's database connectivity and other operations with this engine and then move to bigger and better engines like MySQL.
However, it falls short in the following aspects:
- It supports up to 2^64 rows for all tables in total. So, for a large website like Facebook, where there are millions of users, each with hundreds of photos, it will fall laughably short.
- It is not as efficient as MySQL in terms of query resolution when there are a large number of tables and entries.
- It does not support joins.
So, in conclusion, SQLite: great for beginners and testers, but not so for advanced programmers and projects.
Cheers!
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