What Is It
The unixODBC ODBC Text File Driver implements
a tiny SQL engine based upon a Text File I/O API.
Weaknesses
1. Too slow for large data sets.
2. Only most basic SQL supported.
3. No support for a catalog (at this time)
so;
- only varchar data type4. No support for multi-user (at this time).
- length always default length (compiled into driver)
- table files must have column names on 1st row
Strengths
1. Its tiny. Smaller even than client libs
for SQL servers.
2. Does not require any client libs to
be installed.
3. Does not require a full DBMS to be
installed.
4. Open file format.
5. Can be usefull for accessing exported
data.
6. Use the power of SQL to work with your
text data.
7. Use isql in batch mode to work with
your text data.
8. Free... even for commercial use.
Future
1. Hopefully it will be used as the default
data source for PIM apps. Then a user may easily upscale/change data source
without changing code.
2. A catalog file will be used to support
more table and column information.
3. Table locking to provide support for
multi-user.
More info...
Setup
Supported
Syntax
File Formats