How large is 4 GB

Hi, All.

New to SQL. Just downloaded SQL server Express 2005, Web doc says its max limit is 4GB,

Need to know how large a 4GB can hold. The data shall be like holding company info, say: company names, locations, line of business, phone, etc. It needs full-text search on it.

Is this Express is the choice to go?

P.S. I might duplicate the posting, just to get wide_based input

Thanks.

Hi Larry,

I suppose the question is: how many rows of company data do you wish to store?

I can type a paragraph on how to perform some capacity planning (rows+index etc) but I don't think this is really what you're after...

If you really want to get a quick and dirty idea, why not build a few tables with the columns you want to record (company name etc), and insert a few dozen rows with some basic indexes? From this, I think you'll have a better idea. Then, when you want to get detailed, come back and post again :)

Cheers

Rob

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Thanks Robert

I might just do that. Concern is if SQL is worth time to learn if I take SQL server, since eventually I need a language tool that can analyze the data, (and the users statistics as well) not just for query. 2nd concern is if 4GB can handle scaling.

SQL is not analytical tool as Focus, as stated by en.wikipedia.org site page, which puts Focue as an only both analytical and query tool, but not SQL.

Any comments on that?

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Hi Larry,

To address your concerns over the 4gb size limit of MSSQL 2005 express: if and when the database size of performance reaches the limites imposed by express, you can always upsize to either Workgroup, Standard or Enterprise edition. Please refer to http://www.microsoft.com/sql/prodinfo/features/compare-features.mspx for a feature comparision between the editions.

I'm not familiar with Focus; my only comment here would be that MSSQL is a DBMS, not an analysis tool. That said however, I would defintely have a look at Analysis Services (a componenent of SQl Server) if it is primarily OLAP that you're interested in.

If you did decide to learn MSSQL, I think you would find your skills to be portable. Yes, microsoft has augmented the ansi SQL standard with extensions (T-SQL), but the core implementation of sql within SQL Server is completely ansi compliant (especially as of 2005).

There is also the little point of SQL Server being the premier DBMS on the market...

Cheers

Rob

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Larry, 4 GB is large enough for most applications. It is certainly not enough for data warehousing (we are talking 50 to 500 GB here, or even more) or for ERP systems (we are talking 5 to 25 GB here, typical cases). I have seen many applications with only around 30 to 300 MB database size, typically those applications which are developed internally within the company, or those applications which started as Access databases.
I would certainly advise you to try SQL Express. Without trying you won't know what it can or can not do. It would take about 30 minutes to install and within a few hours you will understand the taste of it. As for the analytical side, as Robert mentioned, there is Analysis Services.
Vincent

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Robert Varga, Vinival, Hi.

These are the kind of answers that can put me on a perspective on SQL as my choice. I appreciate it.

Nice One!