Compare Director Database Solutions

Paradigma Software created this comparision chart of features with the help of several members of the Director development community, including the choice of compared database systems and the basis for each comparison. If you see a question mark (?), it means that we are missing some data in the comparison. You can help! If you would like to help us update this list or include new points of comparison, please write us at compare@paradigmasoft.com with your information.

V12 Arca (SQL Lite) ADO DB Xtra V4MD Price:   $199 Light $469 Full win+mac $199 win+mac $199 Light $299 Full $199 win/mac $299 win+mac License              Any number of projects yes  yes  yes  yes    Royalty free yes  yes  yes  yes              System requirements:             OS Version MacOS9, X Win 95, ... MacOS9, X Win 95, ... Win 95, ... MacOS X Win 2000, ...   Director Version 8.5 and newer 8.5 and newer 7 and newer 8.5 and newer   Additional services? no no MDAC no             Deployment             HDD yes yes yes yes   CD/DVD yes yes yes yes   WEB yes no yes yes             Easy to learn:             one function only to learn no yes no yes             Documentation:             API Reference yes yes yes yes   Examples ? about 5 about 5 about 60   Tutorial yes yes ? yes             Xtra features:             Xtras Number 2 1 4 10   Debug Log no no no yes             Lingo features:             Get record(s) as list no yes no yes   Get record(s) as string no no no yes               Behavior library yes no no no               Work with pictures:           SetMedia/GetMedia yes no no? yes   Cast Member yes yes no? yes   Picture yes yes no? yes   Image no? yes no? yes             Data Model:             Flat Tables yes yes yes yes   Relational no yes yes yes   Object-Relational no no no yes   Navigational no no no yes             DB engine features:             Max Size of database ? 2 terrabytes * 3 * 2 terrabytes   Number of database files 1 1 * 1, 2, 3, 4   Max Tables in Database 128 4 billions * 4 billions   Max Fields in Table 65535 65535 * 65535   Max records in Table 4 billions 4 billions * 4 billions   Max size of record RAM RAM * RAM               Cache no no yes yes   Locks no db level rec level* rec level   Encryption:           db level no yes no yes   table level no no no yes   field level no no no yes   XML no no yes yes   Calculated fields no no no yes   Autoincrement no yes yes yes   Text import yes yes yes yes   Text export yes no yes yes   Compression of TEXT fields no no * yes               in-memory database no ? no yes   in-memory tables no ? no yes   tmp tables no yes yes yes   tmp fields no no no yes               indexes yes yes yes yes   compound index no yes yes yes   index by expression no no ? yes   unique indexes no yes yes yes   full text indexes yes no yes yes   word delimiter yes no ? yes   stop words yes no ? yes   min length words yes no ? yes               custom file extensions no no no yes   custom schema version no no no yes               Column Types:           NULL no yes yes yes   Bit no no yes yes   Byte no no yes yes   Short no no yes yes   UShort no no yes yes   Medium no no yes yes   UMedium no no yes yes   Long yes yes yes yes   ULong no no yes yes   LLong no yes yes yes   ULLong no no yes yes   Float no no yes yes   Double yes yes yes yes   Date yes no yes yes   Time no no yes yes   DateTime no no yes yes   String yes no yes yes   VarChar no yes yes yes   FixedBinary no no yes yes   VarBinary no no yes yes   BLOB yes yes yes yes   TEXT no no yes yes   Picture no no yes yes   OID no no no yes                Unicode:           Input/output no UTF8/16 UTF* UTF8/UTF16/ 200+ encodins   Database storage no UTF8 UTF* UTF8/UTF16/ 200+ encodins             SQL Features:   no yes yes yes   CREATE TABLE no yes yes yes   unique no yes yes yes   check no yes yes yes   default no yes yes yes   primary key no yes yes yes   foreign key no no yes yes   CREATE TABLE AS no yes no no               ALTER TABLE           rename table no yes yes yes   add column no yes yes yes   drop column no no yes yes   change column type no no yes yes   rename column no no yes yes   rename table no no yes yes   add constraint no no yes yes   drop constraint no no yes yes               INSERT ...VALUES no yes yes yes   INSERT ...SELECT no yes yes yes   UPDATE no yes yes yes   DELETE no yes yes yes               SELECT           expr alias no yes yes yes   distinct no yes yes yes               subquery no yes? yes* yes   FROM           inner join no yes yes yes   left outer join no yes yes yes   right outer join no no yes yes   full outer join no no yes yes   cross join no no yes no   ability to skip join condition no no yes no   subquery  no  no  *  limited               WHERE           between no yes yes yes   in (values) no yes yes yes   in (subquery) no yes yes yes   overlaps no no yes yes   match no no yes yes               like no yes yes yes   regex no yes yes yes   MS style of join no no yes yes   exists subquery no yes yes yes   unique subquery no no yes yes               GROUP BY           count(*) no yes yes yes   count(fld) no yes yes yes   max/min no yes yes yes   sum/avg no yes yes yes   covar() no no yes? yes    stddev, stddev_pop no no yes? yes    bit_and, bit_or, bit_xor no no yes? yes               HAVING no yes yes yes   ORDER BY no yes yes yes   name no yes yes yes   index no no yes yes               UNION no yes yes yes   UNION ALL no yes yes yes   INTERSECT no yes yes yes   INTERSECT ALL no no yes yes   EXCEPT no yes yes yes   EXCEPT ALL no no yes yes               TRIGGERS no yes yes no   VIEWS no yes yes no   BIND OPERATOR ? no yes yes yes   OPERATOR -> no no ? yes               DIAGNOSE no no yes yes   REINDEX no yes no yes   COMPACT no yes yes yes   DEFRAGMENT no no yes yes               Pool of compiled queries no no yes yes   Prepared SQL query no no yes no               EXPRESSION:           nullif no yes yes* yes   coalesce no yes yes* yes   case no yes yes* yes   position no no yes yes   char_length no yes yes yes   octet_length no no yes yes   bit_length no no yes yes   upper no yes yes yes   lower no yes yes yes   trim no no yes yes   substring no yes yes yes                SQL FUNCTIONS:           Numeric no no yes yes   Trigonometric no no yes yes   Bitwise no no yes yes   String no no yes yes   Date/Time no no yes yes   Statistic no no yes yes   Link no no no yes             Client-Server:   no no yes yes             Portability:             Db can be used with other languages? no limited yes yes             Speed:   slow faster Access - slow MSSQL - fast 10-100+ times faster             Target size of db:     small small small to large small to large   < 10Mb yes yes yes yes   <100Mb yes but ... yes but ... ? depend yes   CD size