3 ms·
> There is no fundamental difference between a database and a flat file, it is all bytes on a disk/memory in the end. A database has a whole engine, which I'd
by rrrrrrrrrrrryan 4y ago
> There is no fundamental difference between a database and a flat file, it is all bytes on a disk/memory in the end.
A database has a whole engine, which I'd argue is a pretty fundamental difference.
I think I get what you were trying to say, though: there's no fundamental difference between database tables and flat files, and there's no fundamental difference between a database and a filesystem.
- timClicks 4y agoFile systems are also "whole engines". Otherwise we wouldn't have named files or directory structures.
- hunter2_ 4y ago> there's no fundamental difference between database tables and flat files But "flat" essentially means "one table that doesn't reference (and isn't referenced by) other tables in a reliable way." It's a way of saying 2 dimensions (flat) versus 3+ dimensions (relational). The moment you start having multiple plain text files where columns act as primary and foreign keys, the system is no longer flat, despite using plain text files. It seems to me that TFA and most comments here are really just talking about using a DBMS vs using plain text files, not using flat vs using relations.
- djrobstep 4y agoHow is a filesystem not a "whole engine"?
- rrrrrrrrrrrryan 4y agoA filesystem is, but a flat file alone is not. That was the only point of my comment - I was just being pedantic.