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MongoDB is a NoSQL-type database, so it wouldn't make sense to have a SQL query interface... I think they did a good job with the API for not using SQL. Plus,

MongoDB is a NoSQL-type database, so it wouldn't make sense to have a SQL query interface... I think they did a good job with the API for not using SQL. Plus, the API isn't really abusing JSON. It isn't pretty, but it's not abuse.

Firehed 14y ago
People seem to be confusing "NoSQL" and "non-relational". Mongo happens to be both, but there's nothing fundamental that puts the two together. You may not get the full capabilities of SQL with non-relational data (JOINs, etc), but there's no reason that non-relational data stores couldn't parse normal SQL and execute the appropriate queries. You can make a relational database that doesn't support the SQL syntax, and you can use SQL syntax to interact with schemaless data (for added fun, try throwing JSON in a mysql/postgres text field). I'd agree with the article saying this is an abuse of JSON, though. It's a format to represent data; more accurately, potentially-nested key:value stores, arrays, and scalar types. A query is not data (unless you're one of those "my database has a 'queries' table" types)
- nslater 14y ago
  How is a query not data?
  - Firehed 14y ago
    In the same way that code isn't data. Yes, it's bytes in memory like any other data, but it's the means rather than the end. You care about the data, and the query (or code) is what you use to get it.