[Tutor] databases

[Andre' Walker-Loud]

> > package that can open a databases without knowing there format?
> 
> The Python DB API is pretty good at covering all the common databases but sadly everyone has some slight variances so you do need to know which product you will be using.
> 
> As an example the SQLite package that comes in the standard library - and is a good starter - doesn't require login credentials but Oracle, MySQL etc do. Also Sqllite is stored in a single file accessed via a code library whereas most other SQL databases use multiple files and a server frontend. (That's why there's a connect() function - to connect to the server... in SQLite connect just opens the file!)
> 
> If you are a database noob I'd keep it simple and stick with SQLite, it's powerful enough for most beginner type projects and misses out some of the more complex features of the other packages. Provided you aren't expecting to scale up to 10's of millions of records it will do just fine. Once you understand SQLite moving to MySQL or Firebird or whatever will be an easy next step.

So, in case I wasn't clear, the databases are already made by someone else, and the format is beyond my control.  I need/want to learn to manipulate them.  Most likely they are similar to the Berkeley database (but I don't know what this means yet).

Thanks for the help,

Andre