Database or large text file processing??

[Stephen Barncard]

>Hello again!
>
>I wish to retrieve details about a particular file which are held in 
>a text file, fairly large at about 264000 lines. The file contains 
>details about many

One nice thing about a database, especially a remote one, it that it 
handles everything you need to do with data - store, move, access, 
calculate in a nice module in a structured way so you can concentrate 
on your business logic at hand. And multi-user capability is built in.

MySQL is very easy to use and the commands are even more simple than 
Transcript. Many ISPs offer MySQL and other databases that are 
included with web service (PLUG: Dreamhost). Having the ISP configure 
the messy parts and maintaining the hardware had removed my final 
obstacles to using a database. My ISP offers unlimited databases and 
I don't have to deal with license fees.

Highly Recommended to learn about databases with Rev:
Sara's Tutorial/ examples
http://www.troz.net/Rev/tutorials.html

 From Sarah's site:
-----------------------
MySQLtests.rev
This stack provides a GUI for testing connections to MySQL databases. 
It does basic queries as well as editing of tables and records. Not 
intended for long term use, but I found it helpful when starting to 
learn about MySQL.

MySQL.rev
This stack is a simple client for communicating with MySQL servers 
either on your own computer or remotely. It accepts any MySQL command 
and displays the results in a simple text-based table form. It is 
supposed to be similar to the client available when using OS X's 
Terminal, but does not require that the client & server be installed 
on your computer.
-----------------------
And when you understand how RevDB works and you move on to your 
application, then you'll want to use Trevor Devore's DB Library 
that's  a database abstraction library written in Transcript, that 
makes it all much easier.
http://mangomultimedia.com/developer/revolution/

The earlier 1.x version also includes a simple working example; the 
newer 2.xx BETA has even more features but no demo yet - and the 
syntax is slightly different on a few routines. I've used them both 
and they both work well and the 'upgrade' to the new library amounts 
to changing a couple of lines in your code.

Sarah and Trevor ROCK!

sqb


-- 
stephen barncard
s a n  f r a n c i s c o
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