> SQL still has a place and MongoDB is no replacement
Let's flip this: NoSQL is finding it's place in the database ecosystem.
SQL is the name of a database query language, NoSQL is a term that identifies a set of new, ostensibly non-relational, data storage engines that so implement an SQL parser despite SQL being the Standard Query Language, with twenty years of history behind it.
My opinion - They decided to call it NoSQL, not because SQL requires a relation database, but because writing a smart query optimizer is hard task. Much harder than writing the storage engine itself.
I'd much rather access data from Mongo, Riak, Redis, and Couch using the SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE and DELETE statements that I have known since 1988, instead of having to learn four new database APIs.
"I'd much rather access data from Mongo, Riak, Redis, and Couch using the SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE and DELETE statements that I have known since 1988, instead of having to learn four new database APIs."
Doesn't work because those are set operations which are meaningless outside the relational world. If you want to use set operations, use a relational database.
I'm going to disagree. A partial implementation of SQL would go a long way to clearing the stigma of "You old RDBMS users don't know what you're doing" that NoSQL engenders.
They are database operations, originally implemented against database management systems that attempt to map relational algebra (set operations) onto data stores. There is nothing in the SQL grammar that prevents its implementation outside RDBMS.
> "Doesn't work because those are set operations which are meaningless outside the relational world. If you want to use set operations, use a relational database."
I don't want to do set operations, I want to retrieve data.
SELECT * FROM user_collection WHERE city = 'Bronx'
expresses a desire for data, not a desire to perform a bunch of set operations, and should be functionality that is provided but the database vendor since we've had SQL since the 1980s and "everybody" knows SQL.
It is telling that they explain API examples in terms of SQL SELECT statements. I infer that if they wanted to do the work they could provide a SQL processor, and extrapolate to every other API-only datastore.
SQL is the name of a database query language, NoSQL is a term that identifies a set of new, ostensibly non-relational, data storage engines that so implement an SQL parser despite SQL being the Standard Query Language, with twenty years of history behind it.
My opinion - They decided to call it NoSQL, not because SQL requires a relation database, but because writing a smart query optimizer is hard task. Much harder than writing the storage engine itself.
I'd much rather access data from Mongo, Riak, Redis, and Couch using the SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE and DELETE statements that I have known since 1988, instead of having to learn four new database APIs.