is MySQL the way to go?

[Yawa]

I'm building a website for businesses to create a profile for them selves plus that they can add ads and other stuff.

The same thing goes for individual persons too - creating ads. I'm talking about several thousands maybe...

 

The thing is that i does not know for sure that the best way to go is using MySQL database - But doesn't know of any other way to store information either - beside flat-files (not really know how that works).

 

If you wanna stor A LOT of data, what type of storing engine is preferred?

[gamesmstr]

FLat files are data files that contain records with no structured relationships.

 

If you need it indexed and dynamically accessible, then yes. Mysql is the way to go.

[Yawa]

Okay - so is there any limitations on how many rows a table can have?

For the performance in query-time for example?

[PFMaBiSmAd]

For a table without an auto-increment key, the limit on the number of rows in a table would be the amount of data that can be stored in a file on your file system. If you are using an auto-increment key, the limit would for the size of the key (4,294,967,295 for an INT.)

 

As long as you are not doing anything terribly wrong in your table design, you won't have any problem with 500,000 to 5,000,000 rows in a table.

[Yawa]

hehee, okay - so that does not seems to be any problem... hehee

 

I read the "MySQL Performance / Optimizing Queries" sticky thing here, and it was 3 years old - still up to date?

[roopurt18]

It sounds like you're still in the research stages so I recommend looking at PostgreSQL instead of MySQL.  If you have a host that supports PostgreSQL 8.x then I wouldn't bother with MySQL.

[Mchl]

hehee, okay - so that does not seems to be any problem... hehee

 

I read the "MySQL Performance / Optimizing Queries" sticky thing here, and it was 3 years old - still up to date?

 

Mostly up to date. There's also a separate chapter (7 I think) in MySQL's manual devoted to optimisation.

[Yawa]

It sounds like you're still in the research stages so I recommend looking at PostgreSQL instead of MySQL.  If you have a host that supports PostgreSQL 8.x then I wouldn't bother with MySQL.

 

Yes - I'm using Bluehost at the moment - and they do support PostgreSQL. I looked at postgresql.org very fast and it looked ok. But to be honest I'm not using MySQL for no particular reasons, don't really know a lot about it other than that i can store information in tables and fetch it out when needed for creating dynamic webpages.

That I've done a lot, so I'm familiar with the setup and querying etc.

 

What is the main difference between the two? Is it the storing, the performance, the security or what?

Is it hard to convert/move stored data from MySQL to PostgreSQL?

Know of any good tutorials?

 

thanks for answers?

[roopurt18]

Well PostgreSQL is a database just like MySQL.  You create tables, store data, build indexes, and retrieve the data later.  The primary advantages of PostgreSQL, IMO, is that it hasn't recently been acquired by Oracle and is still very much supported.  MySQL isn't going anywhere soon, but it's future is a little uncertain as far as I'm concerned now that it's owned by a proprietary company that already has a proprietary database product.

 

PostgreSQL also supports some features that I'm not sure you get in MySQL, such as a variety of a database programming languages, the ability to make your own aggregates, database schemas, advanced storage types, inherited tables, etc.

 

The PostgreSQL community is also very active should you have support issues.

 

I converted from MySQL to PostgreSQL for my projects at work about 2 years ago and haven't used MySQL since, nor have I wanted to.

[fenway]

MySQL evolved for simple web applications years ago -- and personally, I still think it's best suited for exactly that.