Question

I am looking for a lightweight, reliable and fast key/value database for storing binary data. Simple without server. Most of popular key/value databases like CDB and BerkeleyDB does not natively store BLOB. What can be the best choice that I missed?

My current choice is SQLite, but it is too advanced for my simple usage.

Answer 1

As it was previously pointed out, BerkeleyDB does support opaque values and keys, but I would suggest a better alternative: LevelDB.

LevelDB:

Google is your friend :), so much so that they even provide you with an embedded database: A fast and lightweight key/value database library by Google.

Features:

• Keys and values are arbitrary byte arrays.
• Data is stored sorted by key.
• Callers can provide a custom comparison function to override the sort order.
• The basic operations are Put(key,value), Get(key), Delete(key).
• Multiple changes can be made in one atomic batch.
• Users can create a transient snapshot to get a consistent view of data.
• Forward and backward iteration is supported over the data.
• Data is automatically compressed using the Snappy compression library.
• External activity (file system operations etc.) is relayed through a virtual interface so users can customize the operating system interactions.
• Detailed documentation about how to use the library is included with the source code.