10.10.2012, 19:34
Fact is that the speed difference between the two (flat file storage and database file storage) is not important in most cases, but what you should use depends on what you want to do with the stored information.
For example, iterating through a list of users is really complicated when using multiple files. I mean, it is doable and can be scripted, but it will also be slow. Whereas, the same operation will most likely take like 10ms in the SQL server and the internal processor works with one, neatly indexed and laid out file, not multiple files.
However a badly tuned MySQL database/table is as bad as reading multiple huge flat-files in a loop! So watch out to optimize your creation!
For example, iterating through a list of users is really complicated when using multiple files. I mean, it is doable and can be scripted, but it will also be slow. Whereas, the same operation will most likely take like 10ms in the SQL server and the internal processor works with one, neatly indexed and laid out file, not multiple files.
However a badly tuned MySQL database/table is as bad as reading multiple huge flat-files in a loop! So watch out to optimize your creation!