About Databases...

[Tom Willis]

On Fri, 11 Mar 2005 23:32:48 +0100, andrea_gavana at tin.it
<andrea_gavana at tin.it> wrote:
> Hello NG,
> 
>    I am still quite a newbie with Python (I intensely use wxPython, anyway).
> I would like to know what are, in your opinions, the best/faster databases
> that I could use in Python (and, of course, I should be able to "link" everything
> with a wxPython GUI)? Specifically, I work on Reservoir Simulation, and
> usually I have to store a discrete/huge amount of data (it depends on the
> oil field). As you may have understood, I know almost NOTHING about databases
> ;-)
> In general, my data will be numeric (floats, integers). Will a binary storage
> (if it is possible) reduce the size of the DB? And what about speed in storing/retrieving
> data?
> 
> Thank you a lot for every suggestion.
> 
> Andrea.
> 
> --
> http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
> 

Whoa, you are asking alot. Without knowing anything about your
requirements except what was mentioned in your post. I would say you
would quite possibly want the functionality of a relational database.

I'm assuming that these large amounts of data you will want to store
effeciently and have some way of pulling it back out and arranging it
in various ways(restricting results, order by fields etc...)

For that you are going to have to learn another language besides
python, but it's not that hard. I'm talking about SQL.

Anyway, there lots of Releational Databases, some free some not. They
all have their strengths and weakenesses. And everyone has their
preferences.

Mysql and postgresql are open source databases that run on a variety
of platforms. I know you can talk to MySQL through Python, pretty sure
you can talk to postgresql as well.

MS SQL Server, and Oracle are 2 popular commercial DB's they cost
money. I know nothing about Oracle, but, I have managed to get data in
and out of MS SQL databases, through the MDAC api that's provided on
windows. There may be other ways.

Anyway, you would probably be best served doing some googling, because
you may have a lot of noise coming your way about databases. To some
people, a DB server is a religion, a lover, and a way of life...I pity
those people. :)

-- 
Thomas G. Willis
http://paperbackmusic.net