Question

On an official sqlite3 web page there is written that I should think about sqlite as a replacement of fopen() function.

What do you think about it? Is it always good solution to replece application internal data storage with sqlite? What are the pluses and the minuses of such solution?

Do you have some experience in it?

EDIT: How about your experience? Is it easy to use? Was it painful or rather joyful? Do you like it?

Answer 1

It depends. There are some contra-indications:

• for configuration files, use of plain text or XML is much easier to debug or to alter than using a relational database, even one as lightweight as SQLite.

• tree structures are easier to describe using (for example) XML than by using relational tables

• the SQLite API is quite badly documented – there are not enough examples, and the hyperlinking is poor. OTOH, the information is all there if you care to dig for it.

• use of app-specific binary formats directly will be faster than storing same format as a BLOB in a database

• database corruption can mean the los of all your data rather than that in a single bad file

OTOH, if your internal data fits in well with the relational model and if there is a a lot of it, I’d recommend SQLite – I use it myself for one of my projects.

Regarding experience – I use it, it works well and is easy to integrate with existing code. If the documentation were easier to navigate I’d give it 5 stars – as it is I’d give it four.