[Robert Abitbol] I was extremely intrigued a few days ago when I read on this very wiki that using homemade databases is to be preferred to using others' databases: SQL for example. I cannot find the exact location of this statement. I believe it is in a page on databases obviously. Now, why would a homemade database be better than an SQL database for example? Anyone has an idea? [NEM] Depends on what you mean by "database". You almost certainly don't want to implement your own [RDBMS](or other database management system). You may well want to write your own database, though (which is the collection of data that you want a RDBMS to manage). [SQL] is a language for specifying queries: it is neither a database nor a DBMS. [Robert Abitbol] I believe what the t'cler had in mind was an RDBMS tailor-made for a specific project: perhaps a simple text database with all sorts of field indicators, trails, etc. He implied that this was the best tool for a specific project. Is it? ----- [SYStems] First we must differenciate between a database and a DBMS. In a database we can seperate between the meta-data which describe the data model, and the data itself. A NOT homemade database in this case would mean, a database designed and filled by others, like the yellow pages. And in this case I don't see much harm using such databases actually I would argue it's how we may want to exploit the internet, using other people's databases whenever possible. Same logic goes within a singe enterprise, if another department already have a filled databases that serve your need, I would say it is harmful to build you own department database which would just duplicate the work and create redundancy. So my answer is, no, a homemade database is not necessarely the best database. ----- [Category Community]