Database Question

jonno

Hi all.

I have a fairly good grounding SQL as a language but am having trouble differentiating between the different types of databases - like MS Access, MySQL, Oracle, Sybase, etc.

I've been looking at hosting365 for hosting and they say that they support 10 MySQL Databases and 1 MS SQL Database.

I want to try and stay away from Access if at all possible so what would ye experienced folk recommend?

Tom Dunne

It really depends on what you want to do.

Access is, generally speaking, single user, desktop only and includes all the tools you need to put a front-end on it.

All the other ones, such as MySQL, Oracle, Sybase, SQL Server generally do the same thing. They can handle large numbers of users and transactions. They also differ on cost - MySQL is free, the others, for the most part, cost money.

jmcc

jonno wrote:

I want to try and stay away from Access if at all possible so what would ye experienced folk recommend?

What exactly do you want to do with your database? This is a critical part of choosing db software.

Regards...jmcc

jonno

I want to create a voting system. At the moment the design I have includes three tables. I need it to be able to handle alot of transactions.

If I'm going with hosting365 which should I go for?

And is there a GUI available for MySQL?

Tom Dunne

jonno wrote:

I want to create a voting system. At the moment the design I have includes three tables. I need it to be able to handle alot of transactions.

If I'm going with hosting365 which should I go for?

And is there a GUI available for MySQL?

Pfft. Real men don't use GUIs. There is, but as the database will be hosted on a remote machine, you may not be able to access the database directly. I'm not to well up on remote/hosted databases. All my databases are downstairs in the server room.

To be honest, it doesn't really matter. What programming language are you using? That might have a bearing on it.

jonno

The real reason I need the GUI is that I've been messing around with Sybase quite a bit and liked it. Just wondering was there a similar option when using MySQL.

jonno

Oh and also I will be using alot of Stored Procedures in the database. in case that is influential on the decision.

Tom Dunne

jonno wrote:

The real reason I need the GUI is that I've been messing around with Sybase quite a bit and liked it. Just wondering was there a similar option when using MySQL.

There is a GUI, but because the database is hosted at an ISP, I am not so sure you can connect using a "standard" GUI. If the database was on a machine on a local network, you could use a GUI (I could be corrected on this one). Chances are, there is a web interface to the database.

What you could do is download MySQL (or whatever) and do all the development locally. You then could use the GUI. When it is all working fine, you can upload it all to the hosting company.

jonno

Sorry guys, more stupid questions.

So I emailed hosting365 and asked them do they support Sybase and the reply I got back was "MSSQL, MySQL and PostgreSQL databases are supported."

Is Sybase based on PostgreSQL or what?

I'm confused as to what they all are.

bonkey

jonno wrote:

Is Sybase based on PostgreSQL or what?

I'd go with what

No...Sybase is not based on PostreSQL.

I'm confused as to what they all are.

I'd suggest you visit the relevant sites for MS SQL, MySQL and PostgreSQL to find out.

Civilian_Target

Hosting 365 provide (I think) a PHPMySQL frontend for MySQL which should make it easy to use. Since backup and the computing power is provided by them (I hope!) I would use MySQL as your choice, it's very fast and the hard part of it is maintaining the system, which is now their problem!

Postgres is a full open-source DB system, good for personal use, quite hard though and scales up reasonably well to larger systems.
MySQL is open source but paid-for when used with large deployments. Very fast, but not as dependable as Oracale/DB2 (but more than hard enough unless you're running some sort of nuclear facility!)

Also, there's loads of MySQL help out there if you get stuck, particularly if you're using PHP.

amen

if Stored Procedures are important I'm not sure I would use MySQL.

I have used SP in MySQL and in my opinion they are a bit flaky and not as robust as Oracle/MS SQL Server.

sh_o

tom dunne wrote:

There is a GUI, but because the database is hosted at an ISP, I am not so sure you can connect using a "standard" GUI. If the database was on a machine on a local network, you could use a GUI (I could be corrected on this one). Chances are, there is a web interface to the database.

If there is no web interface and you are connecting through secure shell to your ISP, you could generally tunnel your gui connection through ssh so the location of the db would generally make no difference to the GUI you are using.

jmcc

bonkey wrote:

I'd suggest you visit the relevant sites for MS SQL, MySQL and PostgreSQL to find out.

PostgreSQL is very well supported.

http://www.postgresql.org/about/

It also has some serious users.

http://www.postgresql.org/about/users

Regards...jmcc

rsynnott

jonno wrote:

Sorry guys, more stupid questions.

So I emailed hosting365 and asked them do they support Sybase and the reply I got back was "MSSQL, MySQL and PostgreSQL databases are supported."

Is Sybase based on PostgreSQL or what?

I'm confused as to what they all are.

Historically, MySQL was an open-source database designed with speed in mind, while PostgreSQL was designed with features (transactions, stored procedures, exotic joins etc.) in mind. These days, however, both are fast enough for most reasonable purposes, and both have a decent feature set. More people are probably familiar with MySQL. PostgreSQL's (non-commercial) license is rather more liberal; the MySQL client libraries are now GPL'd. Many programming languages now have native PostgreSQL libraries.

There are web-based GUIs for manipulating MySQL and PostgreSQL databases.

MSSQL is Microsoft's database; it's derived from Sybase (it started off life as Sybase for Windows, more or less) and is only available for Windows.

Ultimately, the choice depends on what you want. If you're writing a commercial application which you wish to sell, you may want to shy away from MySQL. If being bound to a Windows server is a problem, avoid MSSQL. Check that libraries for the database you go for are available for your programming language.

bonkey

rsynnott wrote:

MSSQL is Microsoft's database; it's derived from Sybase (it started off life as Sybase for Windows, more or less) and is only available for Windows.

It was originally a copy of Sybase.

However, in the interim, its been completely rewritten and gone its own way, so is not particularly related to Sybase at all any more.