4 ms·

What if you change the layout of your files? There's a very thin line separating schema and schema-less databases.

• jaltekruse 12y ago
  You are correct that schema-less systems can still require maintenance. However a schema-less system like Drill allows users of the data like business analysts to write interactive queries as soon as they bring new files into HDFS. Surely if you were using Drill to query data programmatically, you would want to make sure only the technical staff could modify the data during the dev process, and likely use an automated process to incorporate data as it comes in. However, this is no different than managing appropriate permissions on a traditional database.
  • arthursilva 12y ago
    Skipping the schema configuration step only saves a few minutes but if you are sloppy schema-less may hurt you big time (hidden bugs, etc.).
    • tshiran 12y ago
      I think there's a tradeoff here. It's like MongoDB - hundreds of thousands downloads per month because it enables people to build and deploy applications faster. For many cases a relational database is still better though. The nice attribute of Drill is that it works on schema-less data as well as data with strong schemas. The user can make the tradeoff between agility and 'safety'.
    • tshiran 12y ago
      Another analogy that might help is strongly typed vs. loosely typed languages. There are pros and cons to both Java and Python, and both are widely used.