MySQL VS XML

[perrohunter]

Hello there

Since PHP has great conectivity to MySQL and great XML capabilities I was wondering

When should we use XML and when should we use MySQL ? or Both or non ?

or only one ?

[NogDog]

They really serve two different purposes (though there is some similarity). MySQL (or any other RDBMS) provides a powerful, fast, and flexible way to store, organize, manipulate, and retrieve data. While you could theoretically do all this with a XML file and supporting programming code, it will never be as fast as using MySQL to do it. On the other hand, XML provides a means of exchanging data with other applications which then do not need to know anything about MySQL (or any other particular RDBMS), just how to parse XML files.

Thus, the ultimate answer is that you use both: MySQL to store your data on your site, and then in certain situations where you want to exchange that data with other applications, you can retrieve the desired data from the DB and output it as an XML file. (This is what most RSS site feeds are doing, for example.)

[Piranha]

To compare databases and XML is like comparing HTML and PHP, in other words it can contain more or less the same thing but it is not at all the same. But I'll try to answer anyway.

Databases should be used to store data. In a database you can search in a good way that take as little resources as possible. And you use tables to store information, and handle relations with different tables.

XML is a standardised format to describe data. But its structure doesn't allow searching in a good way. And relations are not handled at all.

To make it simple: Databases is to store data. XML is to transfer data so many applications can understand it.