is there a database that can easily digest hierarchical data besides XML?

Question

It is very difficult for me to design the database because it requires a lot of recursion. I really can't use XML because it is just not practical for scalability and the amount of data I need to store. Do you guys know of a database that can be used to store hierarchical data?

Answer 1

If your open to NoSQL, then I'd recommend MongoDB. It is document oriented so your not tied down to a fixed schema. It is also very scalable and performant. There are a lot of good OOP like things in it. For instance, a document can contain embedded documents so that if your database is already designed as XML, it will be mostly trivial to store in MongoDB

Answer 2

SQL Server also allows you to store XML files in single fields, and then easily parse specific elements/attributes from them via queries

Answer 3

SQL Server 2008 has the HierarchyId data type. It's specifically designed for this task. Proper indexing and keys will give you fast access to data in both depth-first and breadth-first searches.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb677290.aspx

Answer 4

Maybe you want a hierarchical database like LDAP? OpenLDAP is a free implementation.

Answer 5

Oracle easily allows hierarchy queries with the CONNECT BY syntax

You can have a self referential table like:

Part

part_id
parent_part_id

or a couple of tables like:

Organization

org_id
name

org_relation

org_id1
org_id2