I''ve always wondered, is there any particular database language or method that is supposedly the fastest?

Not sure what you mean here exactly... but I use to do embeded SQL under AIX (IBMs version of Unix) and Sybase (I think on Oracle it''s called C* or something like that). Basically, you write you C/C++ code and include sections for SQL. When you compile it goes through a pre-compiler that turns the SQL into C/C++ code. It was really fast... but, most things are on Unix

As for Working with Windows databases such as SQL Server or Access (yuk) I would suggest ADO. It is very fast and has less restraints than using ODBC. On the other hand ODBC is a bit more portable.

HTH,

Dave "Dak Lozar" Loeser

thanks!

ADO is COM-based and is a lot more object-oriented than ODBC (and easier to use), but it isn't as fast. ADO is also Windows-only while you can find ODBC implementations pretty much everywhere. The ODBC API as supplied by MS is pretty powerful but poorly documented and it's a C API. I think ODBC can be quite useful but to avoid writing and debugging volumes of repetitive code you really have to wrap another library around it. Roguewave has a portable ODBC API that looks quite nice if you have a budget. Personally, I prefer ODBC over Oracle's proprietary stuff because if at some point you decide to switch over to a new database all your applications "just work." And ODBC beats ADO if you want your code to compile under anything but Windows.

As for databases... it really depends on what type of database you're talking about. The most common sort are relational databases and the most prominent contenders are Oracle, MS SQL, Sybase, and DB2. There are also some free/inexpensive alternatives like MySQL and PostgresSQL which are quite common as back-ends for websites. Relational databases have the potential to be extremely fast but their performance depends heavily on database design. Proper use of indexes, etc. is critical. As for who holds the speed title -- everyone claims to. I'd say it's probably the Unix version of Oracle. Relational databases all pretty much use SQL as the language by which you access and manipulate information, and any API you use is going to basically end up constructing queries in SQL behind the scenes.

Object databases are also becoming popular (Java classes map really well into object databases, and the web is the Big Thing now) and generally map better onto the internal structure of programs than relational databases. The downside is that data relationships are much more fixed in object databses, so bizarre data-mining stuff can be a lot more difficult if you didn't plan for it at the outset. Object databases work really well as persistent storage for huge applications, since you can basically dump your Java or C++ classes directly into the database. Some relational databases, like Oracle, have some object database features as well (Oracle calls itself an "object-relational database" and has a built in Java runtime interpreter).

I'd think either one would come in quite handy for an MMORPG and I was amazed to hear that some of the big games decided to code their own custom stuff instead.

Edited by - Kensai on September 8, 2000 6:56:40 PM

I agree with everything that you have written... except for the bold section in the quote.

quote:
ADO is COM-based and is a lot more object-oriented than ODBC (and easier to use), but it isn''t as fast.

I haven''t run any test myself but, I think ADO is faster than ODBC. Anyone know of any bench-marks on this?

Everything else, I would agree with, very well written.

Dave "Dak Lozar" Loeser