Re: Non-text database theory

On Sep 5, 2:26 am, Rune Allnor <all..._at_tele.ntnu.no> wrote:
> Hi all.
>
> This might be off topic for this group; if so please direct me to a
> more
> appropriate group.
>
> I have 20 years of programming experience (hobby / personal scale)
> and
> am getting my feet wet with databases for the first time. The project
> at
> hand needs a database to handle large amounts of data. The data are
> measured by sonar and amounts to the hundreds of GB, so one would
> prefer to save the data on some binary format to save time on the
> text <-> binary conversions.
>
> The textbooks I have found on database theory solely deal with text
> data, i.e. data that are stored as tables in text files, which I
> suppose
> is OK for educational purposes.
>
> 1) Where can I find material on 'real-life' databases which deal with
> the
>    storage and handling of binary data?
> 2) Are there database implementations which are better suited for my
>    application than others? I would like to keep the application
> platform
>    independent, and use C++ as my programming language.
>
> Rune

Hmmm...there's virtually no limit to the kinds of data a modern RDBMS can store, particularly with the extended type capabilities that came along with the object-relational wave of the last decade. The RMoD certainly doesn't circumscribe (data) types.

Anyway, although it sounds like your textbook is using textual attributes in its examples, RDBMSs are quite capable of efficiently storing and allowing you to manipulate binary data. Are you speaking of sonar *images* here, or some other, more fine-grained, measurement?

As to recommended books, I think for what you're working on, stepping away from theory books (not in general, mind you!) and looking for books that are specific to the RDBMS you're working with (which is, by the way, what?) would take you farther on this specific question.

For books that are more theory-oriented, perhaps _Databases, Types and the Relational Model_ by Date would be of interest to you.

Regards,

--Jeff Received on Fri Sep 05 2008 - 19:24:57 CEST