[GRASS-user] Database for GRASS

[Dylan Beaudette]

On Thursday 06 December 2007 07:33:44 am Hamner, Jesse Harrison wrote:
> Kurt,
>
> I'm very pleased with MySQL's performance on both linux (Gentoo) and Mac OS
> X; a big bonus for me is that I can use the ODBC connector for MySQL with
> my statistics package (Stata) and the JDBC connector for MySQL with
> OpenOffice's Base. Further, Perl's MySQL interface is very solid and lets
> me script lots of GRASS commands and data extraction.
>
> If you take the time to set up and learn a little MySQL, I think it's a
> great database engine.
>
> I haven't used FileMaker for years, though it was a godsend during the Mac
> System 7.x and Mac OS 8.x days. Now, though, I can't see paying for the
> ODBC connector when MySQL's versions work quite nicely.
>
> Jesse
>
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: Kurt Springs <ferret_bard at mac.com>
> > Date: Wednesday, December 5, 2007 11:33 pm
> > Subject: [GRASS-user] Database for GRASS
> > To: grassuser at grass.itc.it
> >
> >> Hi folks,
> >>
> >> I have some questions as to which databases people are using with
> >> grass.  I currently use Filemaker for as a database, but could never
> >>
> >> get it to link to GRASS.  I was wondering if this problem has been
> >> resolved.  Otherwise, I am considering which database software would
> >>
> >> provide easy of use and still get the data I need ported to my GRASS
> >>
> >> GISs.  I contemplating Postgresql but it isn't all that intuitive.
> >> How are MySQL and SQLite Browser?
> >>
> >> Kurt
>

Some of my observations over the years. 

1. MySQL is simple to setup, easy to administer, and relatively fast. 
2. PostgreSQL is a *little* harder to setup

that said... I was disapointed with the way MySQL deals with poorly formatted 
queries: i.e. inserting characters into a numeric column silently inserts a 0 
(!)... This was back in version 4.3 - so maybe they have changed this.

I am more concerned with data integrity, and PostGreSQL seems like the best 
for me. Also -- it supports several procedural languages: R, Python, PL/SQL, 
Perl... Also the very excellent PostGIS functions. 

I use PgAdmin III when I need a GUI. I think that this application is 
cross-platform.

R has a native connector for PostGreSQL as well.

Cheers,

Dylan