[Pytables-users] Advise needed : can PyTables be used as a database ?

[Bernard K. <cha...@be...>]

Dear community,

I have to develop a program that performs numerical analysis on data 
that come from a fab production line. Every month I can count on 
approximately 100 000 new entries. Each entry is composed on the one 
hand of general information (such as date, machine, ...) and on the 
other hand of raw data that we measure (a matrix of size 2000x1000 or 
more). So far I gather the general information in a relational database 
(firebird - kinterbasdb) and the data are just kept in individual files. 
I appreciate the database because I can sort my data on the different 
columns of my table and I can perform fast search to organize my huge 
number of entries. But I also realize that the numerical treatment that 
will follow will become quite cumbersome. This is why I am interested in 
PyTables (to be honest I am also interested in PyTables because I trully 
hate SQL and love Python)

Here are my questions:
- can I replace my database with PyTables ?
- is it possible to sort efficiently (meaning fast) a table in PyTables 
along a specific column ? How ?
- does the concept of primary key in a database exist in PyTables ? I 
use primary key to avoid inserting two times the same row in my table. 
Is there an equivalent way to do it in PyTables?
- how does PyTables compare with relational databases such as Firebird, 
SQLite,... in terms of performance ?
- Are my questions relevant or do you instead advise me to keep to 
relational database ?

Thanks a lot for your answers.

Bernard Kaplan