4 replies to this topic

[liamzebedee]

What is faster on a Windows operating system(mainly but I would like the opinions of other os's, its just windows is common). SQL or using the file system. This is for fast access of data. The SQL database would be hosted on the local computer.

[Alexander]

You appear to be asking an inappropriate question. SQL or file system for what data storage?

If you are accessing data in a linear fashion, then you do not "need" a database. If you require indexing, transactions, relations between data sets, normalization of data sets, searches and analytics, then a (relational) database management system would make sense and likely cannot be done as efficiently with files alone.

[liamzebedee]

So this would be faster in say a game server, where player positions are reguraly queried in a database?

[WingedPanther]

In the case of a game server, why would you want this information on disk instead of in memory?

[Alexander]

If those data values are going to be used in game (last packets, positions, game data), the memory will be many hundreds of times faster than the disk. If you require persistence on data, then a binary save file, plain text file, or SQL database will all be equally valid solutions.