Re: Postgresql vs. Mysql

tom(dot)kemp(at)philips(dot)com writes:

> Hi All,
>
> I'm sure that this question gets asked a lot. Can someone reference
> me to good material on why one would choose one vs. another? I
> greatly appreciate it!

It used to be that MySQL was the choice for raw speed, and PostgreSQL
was the choice if you needed more advanced features or transactions.
Nowadays MySQL has transactions, and PostgreSQL is not nearly as pokey
as it used to be. In fact, if your application has a lot of writes
PostgreSQL will probably be faster.

http://www.phpbuilder.com/columns/tim20001112.php3

> I am designing a database (first ever, after reading a couple of
> texts) for a company department that currently doesn't have one.
> I'm pretty comfortable with the correctness of the structure and
> have a script ready to build the database with SQL commands. The
> table structure is such that it appears that many queries would be
> calling other sub-queries (functions?). Other than that, there is
> nothing special about the database. I plan to use php to interface
> the database server with the internal web and will run it on an HPUX
> environment machine with an Apache web server.

My suggestion would be to use PostgreSQL, and make sure you get a good
book (like Joe Celko's SQL for Smarties), and then subscribe to the
pgsql-general (and perhaps pgsql-sql) mailing lists, but then again I
am biased. Some people get confused by PostgreSQL's fancier features,
and so that might be a reason to go with MySQL. Also there are a lot
of folks using the PHP + MySQL combination, and sometimes there are
benefits to running with the popular crowd.

> Thanks for the help.
>
> Tom

Jason