Hi,

Although I have been programming in Perl for a number of years now, I have never used any database modules. Yes, don't laugh.

Now I have this program in which I have been working, and so far I had been using flat files to store the data. It works ok, but as the amount of data grows, access becomes slower and slower. So I started looking into more sophisticated database solutions.

I have looked at several of the traditional DB modules, such as GDBM_File, DB_File, and MLDBM (which layers on top of any of the other two). Using MLDBM would make it much easier to port my existing program, because I already store things in a hash in my existing program. I'm just looking for a way to improve my program's performance in reading and writing its database.

Of course, I also looked at DBI. I even bought the book. However, it seems that most of the well-developed DBI drivers are for full-blown database servers, such as Oracle or MySQL. I need something standalone. But there don't seem to be DBD's for GDBM and friends, are they? Furthermore, I have the feeling that using DBI would involve massive rewriting, planning of the tables, and the learning curve of SQL. Maybe I'm just afraid because it's new territory for me.

So I guess I'm just looking for some advice here from the more experienced monks. Is using an "old" DB module such as MLDBM with GDBM_File considered harmful? Should I use DBI at any cost? I have very little formal database programming background, so maybe I'm just not making sense here.

Any wisdom will be very appreciated.

Thanks,

--ZZamboni

In reply to DBI vs MLDBM/GDBM_File, etc. by ZZamboni

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