Relational Database Management Systems - Design and Use of Relational Databases in Chemistry - page 31

chapter 4
Relational Database
Management Systems
4.1 Introduction
There are many relational database management systems (RDBMS) avail-
able. A full comparison of every feature of every RDBMS is beyond the
scope of this topic. Such comparisons quickly become outdated. A search
using Google or Wikipedia is a good place to start if you want to make a
comparison. A comparison of Oracle, MySQL, and PostgreSQL is avail-
able from the Computing Division at Fermilab. 1 As with any compari-
son, be sure to note which versions of each database are being compared.
Comparisons are most valuable when the most recent version of each
database is considered. Besides objective feature comparisons such as the
above, other considerations are important. Sometimes a particular data-
base is already being used at a particular company or research institution.
This can be a great advantage, considering that support and advice of col-
leagues is often quick and highly relevant.
Much of this topic discusses ways in which the RDBMS can be used
and even extended to handle chemical structures correctly, quickly, and
conveniently. Extensions of the capabilities of PostgreSQL are simply
called extensions . Oracle uses the term data cartridge . There are chemical
extensions or cartridges available for PostgreSQL, Oracle, and MySQL.
PostgreSQL is a free and open-source RDBMS that traces its roots to
Ingres, one of the first RDBMS created. It strongly conforms to the ANSI-
SQL-92/99 standards. There are several independent companies that
offer support for PostgreSQL. There are commercial products that use
PostgreSQL as an underlying database. CHORD, a commercial chemical
cartridge for PostgreSQL, is sold by gNova. 2 PgChem, an open-source car-
tridge for PostgreSQL, is available at SourceForge. 3 RDKit also contains an
open-source cartridge for PostgreSQL. 4
Oracle is a commercial RDBMS. It strongly conforms to the ANSI SQL-
92/99 standards. It is the most widely used RDBMS. The Oracle company
sells and supports the Oracle RDBMS. There are many other companies
that also offer support for Oracle RDBMS. There are several commercial
chemical cartridges available for use with Oracle. 5
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