Chapter 13. Data Storage

In this chapter:

  • Files as databases

  • INI and config files, and the registry

  • Extensible Markup Language (XML) files and related tools such as XML Schema Definition (XSD), Extensible Stylesheet Language for Transformations (XSLT), and XML Path (XPath)

  • Relational databases

  • Spreadsheets, object stores, and object-relational databases

  • Hierarchical and network databases

WHEN MANY PEOPLE THINK ABOUT DATA storage, they think about large relational databases, but there are many other ways a program can store data. It can store data in formatted text files, comma-delimited files, configuration files, the system registry, or plain old text files.

Each method has advantages and disadvantages. For example, although a relational database provides ...

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