SQLite vs Symas LMDB: What are the differences?
Introduction
SQLite and Symas LMDB are both popular database management systems. While both serve the same purpose of storing and retrieving data, there are key differences between the two. Below are the six key differences:
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Data Structure: SQLite is a relational database management system (RDBMS) that uses tables with rows and columns to store data. On the other hand, Symas LMDB is a key-value store database, which organizes data in a simple key-value pair format.
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Transaction Support: SQLite supports ACID (Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, Durability) transactions, allowing reliable data modification and integrity. In contrast, Symas LMDB supports multi-version concurrency control (MVCC) transactions, which ensure consistent reads and writes without the need for locks, resulting in high performance and concurrency.
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Concurrency: SQLite uses a single-writer and multiple-reader (SWMR) concurrency model, where only one thread can write to the database while multiple threads can read concurrently. On the other hand, Symas LMDB provides full concurrency, allowing both read and write operations from multiple threads simultaneously.
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Memory Usage: SQLite loads the entire database into memory, which may result in high memory consumption for large databases. In contrast, Symas LMDB efficiently manages memory by using a memory-mapped file, where data is accessed directly from disk, resulting in optimized memory usage even for large datasets.
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Durability: SQLite guarantees durability by writing transactions to disk immediately to prevent data loss in case of a system failure. Symas LMDB, on the other hand, achieves durability through a combination of write-ahead logging and periodic data syncing, ensuring data persistence while providing high performance.
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Scalability: SQLite is predominantly designed for small to medium-sized application scenarios. It can handle a substantial amount of data but may face performance degradation with a large number of concurrent connections. In contrast, Symas LMDB is highly scalable and optimized for high-performance workloads, making it a suitable choice for applications with massive concurrency and large datasets.
In summary, SQLite is a traditional RDBMS with relational data structures and transaction support, while Symas LMDB is a key-value store database that excels in high performance and concurrency, with a memory-efficient and scalable approach.
