Data storage
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PlausiblyDamp
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If your budget stretches to it SQL or Oracle may be a better choice than Access. Alternatively MSDE, SQL Express or MySQL might all be valid options.
If you could give us a bit more detail about the type / amount of data then you might be able to get a more specific answer.
If you could give us a bit more detail about the type / amount of data then you might be able to get a more specific answer.
PlausiblyDamp said:
I want to develop this program for myself, mainly for practising Visual Basic .NET, but also for managing my clients.
One of the things I'm curious about: is it necessary to use a database or are there other (better) solutions. There are a lot of programs that manage a lot of data without the use of a database, or am I mistaking?
Anyway my budget for this (exercise)project is low, so if I must use a database it will be probably Access.
If you're just talking about just storing bits of data and then reading it later, you could get away withing using XML files. Just come up with a schema that holds everything you need. .NET has great tools for serializing classes to XML.
If you're talking about running queries and performing calculations and doing comparisons across multiple files then, depending on the complexity, you're probably going to need a DBMS -- even if it is just something like Access. Depending on how much money you have and how much your own time is worth, there's probably no reason to re-invent the wheel.
If you're talking about running queries and performing calculations and doing comparisons across multiple files then, depending on the complexity, you're probably going to need a DBMS -- even if it is just something like Access. Depending on how much money you have and how much your own time is worth, there's probably no reason to re-invent the wheel.
Well, again, it depends on the amount of data you are talking about. Also, it depends on what you want to do with that data, i.e. perform calculations, sort it, search it, query it, etc.
Storing simple data in a binary file and writing your own sort/calculation/search operation works fine for small scale solutions but it simply does not scale very well. Plus you are probably going to have to write a custom front-end to "manage" the data.
The whole purpose of a database management system is to allow you to bust a large amount of data up into many smaller chunks (pages). Once you start dealing with a lot of data (say more than 50 MB) in a binary file you will quickly realize that it is not practical -- even with a system that has several GB of memory. A DBMS provides far more robust capabilities for the aforementioned operations. In my opinion, there is no reason to reinvent the wheel if you don't have to. Really, it all boils down to the current and future sizes of the project.
FYI -- you can utilize all of the benefits Access has to offer (from a program's standpoint anyway) without paying a dime. You don't actually need to "have" Access to use it in your program.
Storing simple data in a binary file and writing your own sort/calculation/search operation works fine for small scale solutions but it simply does not scale very well. Plus you are probably going to have to write a custom front-end to "manage" the data.
The whole purpose of a database management system is to allow you to bust a large amount of data up into many smaller chunks (pages). Once you start dealing with a lot of data (say more than 50 MB) in a binary file you will quickly realize that it is not practical -- even with a system that has several GB of memory. A DBMS provides far more robust capabilities for the aforementioned operations. In my opinion, there is no reason to reinvent the wheel if you don't have to. Really, it all boils down to the current and future sizes of the project.
FYI -- you can utilize all of the benefits Access has to offer (from a program's standpoint anyway) without paying a dime. You don't actually need to "have" Access to use it in your program.
Mister E said:
Thanks! This makes the decission simple. It will be a database (and in my case Access because of my budget)
That was not what I meant.
I know that my program can do everything with Access (I did it before). What I meant was that the stored data can be easily accessed without my program, ie. with MS Access. And that is something I don't want.And also...... HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!
