Best Database for a Nuby?

rubyonrails-talk
1

I have no prior experience with a database, and am trying to figure out which one to go with.

I was going to go with MySQL (rather than Postgres, which seems to be considered superior) because it had more documentation and my app is very basic, but I read that it only allows for 1 index per table, which worried me -- although I don't know if it's actually something to be worried about.

So all in all, are Postgre's advantages worth it even if my knowledge is very limited and my app very basic? Thank you for any help.

2

I have no prior experience with a database, and am trying to figure out which one to go with.

I was going to go with MySQL (rather than Postgres, which seems to be considered superior) because it had more documentation and my app is very basic, but I read that it only allows for 1 index per table, which worried me -- although I don't know if it's actually something to be worried about.

That's absolute bollocks. what you might have read and misinterpreted is than when a given query is executed, no more than one index will be used per table.

For example if you had an address book app and you had one index on say state and one index on occupation and you execute a query against that table then mysql will use either the index on state or the index on occupation (or neither if neither one helps) but never both indexes (although you can create an index on both columns)

So all in all, are Postgre's advantages worth it even if my knowledge is very limited and my app very basic? Thank you for any help.

Use what you're most comfortable with.

Fred

3

Use the default in Rails 2.1 which is SqlLite.

SQL Lite is a good database that works out of one file in your apps home directory. The advantage is you don't have to set up a server or permissions or anything like that. It just works.

This will give you the least headaches.

Mikel

4

Mikel Lindsaar wrote:

5

Frederick Cheung wrote:

6

Kyle,

I have no prior experience with a database, and am trying to figure out which one to go with.

I was going to go with MySQL (rather than Postgres, which seems to be considered superior) because it had more documentation and my app is very basic, but I read that it only allows for 1 index per table, which worried me -- although I don't know if it's actually something to be worried about.

So all in all, are Postgre's advantages worth it even if my knowledge is very limited and my app very basic? Thank you for any help.

Nope. We use MySQL for most of our Rails apps, mainly due to it's popularity. It'll take a while before you get to the point where the underlying database is actually your bottleneck, and even then there are tradeoffs with any database system.

MySQL will be fine. If you app is really simple and doesn't get a ton of traffic, I'd even recommend using SQLite. I use it a lot for development and even in production on some small apps.

Hope that helps, Brandon