tinysql / News: Recent posts

tinySQL is great for small applications. But the 11 character column name limitation is a real pain. That is now gone, although not in a terribly elegant way. tinySQL now keeps a lookup table which maps short to long columns. The DB also now supports NULL and NOT NULL keywords as well as the TO_DATE('DD-MON-YY') function. The new release 2.26 also includes many, many bug fixes, including enforcing validation on date formats so that other applications such as Excel can recognize date fields.

Having discussed the code divergence issue with several tinySQL developers, I have decided to release tinySQL 2.0 as a new package called com.sqlmagic.tinysql. This will make the new code distinct and not inter-operable with the old code.

This version of tinySQL includes a command line SQL interface which can be used to "start" batch files consisting of multiple SQL commands. Other new features include table and column aliases, summary functions COUNT,MAX,MIN,SUM, in-line functions CONCAT,SUBSTR,SYSDATE, and UPPER, support for PreparedStatement, and much improved SELECT performance.... read more

The CUP parser has been replaced, which made it relatively easy to add support for the aggregate functions SUM,MIN,MAX,and COUNT as well as the in-line function CONCAT.

Having enhanced support for multiple table joins, I ran into the performance issues that Brian discussed on page 135 of "Java Database Programming". This required a major change to the way WHERE clauses are processed, including the creation of a tinySQLWhere class which can be evaluated as each row of data is being constructed. This has held up the release of tinySQL 2.0 somewhat, but it should still be available by the end of June.

There are many Open Source database engines available, but none are as lightweight or easy to use as tinySQL. The ability to read and write tinySQL files using MS Excel is an added bonus, and provides a method for building databases very quickly.

The current development plans for the next generation of tinySQL will produce a more functional, file based SQL database engine which can be used as a rapid proto-typing tool for Java application projects.... read more