Database efficiency

Question

I am about to write a program to keep track of my school assignments and I was wondering what database language would be the most efficient and simple to implement to track the meta-data of the assignments? I am thinking about XML, but it would require several documents.

I (currently) have at least ten assignments per week for 45 weeks. The data that has to be stored includes name, issue date, due date, path, and various states of completion. What ever language it's in would have to be able to take a large increase in both the number of assignments and the amount of meta-data without having to make large changes in either the format or the retrieval system.

Answer 1

I would recommend Oracle Express (With Application Express) It will scale up to 4gb of user data. Beyond that, you would have to start paying. Application Express is very simple and build CRUD applications for, which is what is sounds like yours is.

Answer 2

First, I think you are confusing a relational database system with a database language. In all likelihood, you will be using a database that uses SQL. From there, you will need to another programming platform to build an application around. If you wanted, you could use an Microsoft Access database that allows you to build a simple front-end that is stored in the same file as the database. In this case you would be programming with VBA.

Pretty much any more database system would be suitable for your needs, even Access handle orders of magnitude more work than you are describing.

Some possible database systems are, again, Microsoft Access, Microsoft SQL Server Express, VistaDB, SQLite (probably the best choice after access for your needs), and of course there are many others.

You could either build a web front end or a desktop; I assume you are using Windows. You could use Visual Studio C# Express for this if you wanted. Or you could go with VB.NET, VB6, or what have you.

Answer 3

My answer isn't directly related, but as you are designing your database structures you might want to take at some of the the objects in the SIF specification in particular look at the Assignment and GradingAssignment objects.

As for how to store the data, you could use a rdbms (sqlite, mysql) or perhaps key-value database (zodb, link).

Of course, if this is just a small personal project you could just serialize the data to something like xml, json, csv or whatever and storing it as a file. It might be better in the long run to use a database though. A database format will probably scale a lot easier.

Answer 4

For a project like that I would use Sqlite or Mysql, it's be fast enough. Plus it's easy to setup.

Answer 5

Quite frankly, if you pick a full-fledged database you run the risk of spending more time on data entry than you do on your homework. If you really need to keep track of this, I would seriously recommend a spreadsheet.