Or maybe not. In any case, whenever I try to think of the solution to a problem that involves data, I seem to instinctively think of it in terms of an RDBMS table. My problem is that surely RDBMS systems aren't the only way to solve these problems, they might not even be the best way, but I can't think of any other ways!

As an example, I was recently designing a "forum" type system, similar to the one at perlmonks, where people would post nodes and replies and so forth. If I was doing this with a database of some sort, I would use a table with fields like: id, author, title, body, parent, date; indexed on author, id, parent and date, probably.

In the spirit of TIMTOWTDI, surely there is some other way that I could store this data, but I can't think of any!

(Note: I have no real problem with using relational databases to solve this type of problem, but since I instinctively reach for them all of the time now, I'm beginning to worry that RDBMSs are my hammer and every problem is turning in to a nail)

In reply to Help, RDBMS have taken over my brain! by BUU

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