what is the advantage of database

auday1982

hello

happy new year

may i ask you what is the advantage of database?

i know that databases use cpu resources and files use memory , but which one is going to use less resources

i also want to know ... why all content management systems use only database .. why not to create php files or html using php and store the data in these files

thanks

bradgrafelman

auday1982 wrote:
i know that databases use cpu resources and files use memory

And what led you to that assumption? Reading a file involves both the CPU and memory, and a database is simply data stored in a collection of files, so virtually they are the same.

auday1982 wrote:
also want to know ... why all content management systems use only database .. why not to create php files or html using php and store the data in these files

Because you'd have to design a system that can properly categorize, store, and later retrieve the data from those files. In other words, you've just created your own mini-database system.

So, would you rather use something that you've just made up, or would you rather trust a tried-and-true database software that has undergone many revisions, gone through many bug reports, and filled with many features? The answer to that question should answer your question.

auday1982

thanks for the reply ... it is true that the files use both cpu and memory

but database queries r one of the things that slow websites down

i am thinking about making a system where the data stored in a database , and also in a file , visitors view the file , admins create and edit the data in the database , then php save it as file

to make things clear ... add the contents to sql db and then save them in files

bradgrafelman

auday1982 wrote:
but database queries r one of the things that slow websites down

No, not really; poorly designed queries against poorly designed databases are what can slow websites down that receive a lot of traffic.

Even on my index, which uses a few different queries, the page is rendered in 0.2-0.4 seconds (and I'm no SQL guru).

auday1982 wrote:
add the contents to sql db and then save them in files

And have two copies of data? Doesn't seem to make much sense to me... shrug I suppose you could index the files in the SQL database or something.

dagon

sounds like a standard cacheting system to me, data base add edit data - makes files that are served to the user. Best of both worlds

auday1982

thanks for explaining to me what cause the database to slow down the website , and now i am happy to know it is all about writing a good code and not about the database itself

i dont know if i can call it a cache system or not ... but i am learning php to make some content management system .. but like an html builder application...

thank you all

FatalError

It is true that including PHP files is faster than querying an SQL database, but you'd have to re-write a lot of code for one little change. The advantage of SQL databases is querying. You can select only the values you want, however you want, while flat files require you to write functions to deal with that. SQL saves you a lot of coding because the functionality is already there, no need to write extra code.

If you wanted a completely optimized fast-as-lightning application, you would use flat files. But then again, if you were really that worried about speed, you wouldn't be using PHP, you'd be writing your own application in C. Trust me, no one is that worried about speed.

The optimal storage method would be an SQL database with PHP files to cache stuff.

rulian

The point of the database is to avoid creating 1000 files to have to update and manage.
Database sites change their information on the same file, rather then having many different files.
Therefore, any updates and changes can be quickly made once, rather then to each individual file.

So when your database grows to a million rows, you dont have to worry about having 1 million files.

Also, databases are much more versitle and dynamic then static files.
If you are doing any form of calculating or searching, it's much easily accomplished in databases.

bradgrafelman

rulian wrote:
If you are doing any form of calculating or searching, it's much easily accomplished in databases.

Not to mention searching. Would you rather loop through 1 million files and search for a keyword, or simply use FULLTEXT indexing on SQL and execute one query?

auday1982

hello

thank you for replying ... this is so helpful ... i understood that the sql is much easier and well organized ...

as i am learning php ... i dont want to go far and away ... i want to stay close to what is popular on the web and good .. i dont want to make it complicated

i worry about speed ... but not that much ... i started this topic to know ... the best way to deal with data

i appreciate your reply
regards

FatalError wrote:
It is true that including PHP files is faster than querying an SQL database, but you'd have to re-write a lot of code for one little change. The advantage of SQL databases is querying. You can select only the values you want, however you want, while flat files require you to write functions to deal with that. SQL saves you a lot of coding because the functionality is already there, no need to write extra code.

If you wanted a completely optimized fast-as-lightning application, you would use flat files. But then again, if you were really that worried about speed, you wouldn't be using PHP, you'd be writing your own application in C. Trust me, no one is that worried about speed.

The optimal storage method would be an SQL database with PHP files to cache stuff.

auday1982

thank you very much for your reply

1 million row is very big number ....

rulian .. u just bringing more question to my head ... what you said just now makes me ask myself ... then why it is not that big deal if database got 1 million rows ...

thank you a lot

rulian wrote:
The point of the database is to avoid creating 1000 files to have to update and manage.
Database sites change their information on the same file, rather then having many different files.
Therefore, any updates and changes can be quickly made once, rather then to each individual file.

So when your database grows to a million rows, you dont have to worry about having 1 million files.

Also, databases are much more versitle and dynamic then static files.
If you are doing any form of calculating or searching, it's much easily accomplished in databases.

bradgrafelman

auday1982 wrote:
then why it is not that big deal if database got 1 million rows ...

The number itself seems large, but not to MySQL.

MySQL has been around for years and has undergone countless of revisions, upgrades, and optimizations because of people demanding speed and reliability. A million rows to MySQL is simply scratching the surface of what it can quickly handle.

To you, 1 million rows seems large. To people who have worked with SQL servers, that's nothing to them. For example, read Sxooter's testimony about the SQL server at his workplace:

Sxooter wrote:
At work, I've got a table that summarizes all the requests our systems see every minute. It has data since last August or so. Every service (100 or so) times every machine (4 to 8) times every minute since last august. Running something like order by random() limit 1 on such a database will simply never return. In the month of April alone, for 2 weeks so far, it has 3,046,182 rows.

In the last hour, on a quiet saturday night, it's gotten about 5,000 rows.

3,046,182 rows every two weeks. Still worry about MySQL handling your data quickly? :p

auday1982

hello

as i mentioned brad ... i can put the same data in the files and on the database, so in this case ... you search in the database ... and execute one query to display the results

and all this files stuff ...which if i make it i will use the topic or article id as the file name ... will give nice urls like web.any/article/category1/123.php ( and i am saving some mod rewrite load - which i know is a bit heavy on the servers )

so what i have in my mind makes me confuse

many files and more code
no mod rewrite but nice urls ( organized contents )

i think every new learning guy or at least those like me ... have the excitement and the dream to make something different ... just because programing is interesting

thank you all ...

bradgrafelman wrote:
Not to mention searching. Would you rather loop through 1 million files and search for a keyword, or simply use FULLTEXT indexing on SQL and execute one query?

bradgrafelman

Just one more comment...

auday1982 wrote:
and i am saving some mod rewrite load - which i know is a bit heavy on the servers

I don't have any benchmarking evidence to prove this, but I'm pretty sure that servers can handle this load if you decide to use this feature. Many news and other high-traffic websites use this module.

Plus, if you find that your servers are operating near or over 75% capacity on even a semi-regular basis, it'd be a good excuse to expand and upgrade your plan. :p

auday1982

thanks brad

that is amazing ... it s like i am asking a 1 ton truck to take my php 5 unleashed book home ...

thank you for this interesting quote ..
i will be back later for more questions on how to write good code that works with database smoothly

take a rest for 1 week or 2 ...i will be back hopefully as i am almost done with the basic things ... going to start with the advanced php functions chapters...

peace

bradgrafelman wrote:
The number itself seems large, but not to MySQL.

MySQL has been around for years and has undergone countless of revisions, upgrades, and optimizations because of people demanding speed and reliability. A million rows to MySQL is simply scratching the surface of what it can quickly handle.

To you, 1 million rows seems large. To people who have worked with SQL servers, that's nothing to them. For example, read Sxooter's testimony about the SQL server at his workplace: 3,046,182 rows every two weeks. Still worry about MySQL handling your data quickly? :p

auday1982

hello

last things to say before going to bed as it s 1 21 AM right now here in edmonton

i am learning php to make an open source cms ... or sort of ... for 2 reasons ... i want to put my ideas live on the web ... get rewards from god as i am doing something good not bad ... and also fill my cv with backend stuff and not only front end

good night ...
regards