>The point of JSON support in SQLite, IMHO, is that it allows for >hierarchical data structures, not something that is easy to do in a >relational table-based DBMS like SQLite otherwise.
Actually, it is very simple and straightforward to implement hierarchical structures using Relational Database Models. What is difficult, however, is implementing the simple and straightforward navigation of a hierarchical database structure -- well, actually it is not really difficult, just very inefficient. Particularly in the case of some network-extended hierarchical database models. It is a case of choosing the right tool for the job -- the choice of using a screwdriver or a hammer depends on whether the job is to drive a screw or drive a nail. It is interesting to note that it is fairly straightforward and efficient to implement a Relational model over top of a hierarchical database (in fact, there used to be many of these implementations back when RDBMS was a newfangled idea), just as one can use a hammer to drive in a screw. Using the screwdriver to drive the nail is somewhat more inefficient (though you can do it if you try hard enough). NB: There are "Relational" database systems where supported datatypes can be arrays, or even arrays of structures or arrays of arrays of ... . Not many though. NOMAD comes to mind, but that was a long time ago ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nomad_software --- The fact that there's a Highway to Hell but only a Stairway to Heaven says a lot about anticipated traffic volume. _______________________________________________ sqlite-users mailing list [email protected] http://mailinglists.sqlite.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/sqlite-users
