Strozzi NoSQL is a

shell Shell may refer to: Architecture and design * Shell (structure), a thin structure ** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses ** Thin-shell structure Science Biology * Seashell, a hard o ...

-based

relational database management system A relational database is a (most commonly digital) database based on the relational model of data, as proposed by E. F. Codd in 1970. A system used to maintain relational databases is a relational database management system (RDBMS). Many relatio ...

initialized and developed by Carlo Strozzi that runs under

Unix Unix (; trademarked as UNIX) is a family of multitasking, multiuser computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, whose development started in 1969 at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, and ot ...

-like operating systems, or others with compatibility layers (e.g., Cygwin under Windows). Its file name ''NoSQL'' merely reflects the fact that it does not express its queries using Structured Query Language; the NoSQL RDBMS is distinct from the circa-2009 general concept of NoSQL databases, which are typically non-relational, unlike the NoSQL RDBMS. Strozzi NoSQL is released under the

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Construction

NoSQL uses the operator-stream paradigm, where a number of "operators" perform a unique function on the passed data. The stream used is supplied by the UNIX input/output redirection system so that over the

pipe Pipe(s), PIPE(S) or piping may refer to: Objects * Pipe (fluid conveyance), a hollow cylinder following certain dimension rules ** Piping, the use of pipes in industry * Smoking pipe ** Tobacco pipe * Half-pipe and quarter pipe, semi-circula ...

system, the result of the calculation can be passed to other operators. As UNIX pipes run in memory, it is a very efficient way of implementation. NoSQL, with development led by Carlo Strozzi, is the latest and perhaps the most active in a line of implementations of the stream-operator database design originally described by Evan Shaffer, Rod Manis, and Robert Jorgensen in a 1991 Unix Review article and a
associated paper
Other implementations include the Perl-base
RDB
a commercial version by the original authors calle
/rdb
an

a version with added astronomical data operators by John Roll of Harvard and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. Because of its strengths in dealing with pipe data, most implementations are a mixture of

awk AWK (''awk'') is a domain-specific language designed for text processing and typically used as a data extraction and reporting tool. Like sed and grep, it is a filter, and is a standard feature of most Unix-like operating systems. The AWK lang ...

and other programming languages, usually C or Perl. The concept was originally described in a 1991 Unix Review article, and later expanded in a paper (see reference above), as well as in the book, "Unix Relational Database Management". NoSQL (along with other similar stream-operator databases) is well-suited to a number of fast, analytical database tasks, and has the significant advantage of keeping the tables in ASCII text form, allowing many powerful text processing tools to be used as an adjunct to the database functions themselves. Popular tools for use with NoSQL include Python, Perl, awk, and shell scripts using the ubiquitous Unix text processing tools (cut, paste, grep, sort, uniq, etc.) NoSQL is written mostly in interpretive languages, slowing actual process execution, but its ability to use ordinary pipes and filesystems means that it can be extremely fast for many applications when using RAM filesystems or heavily leveraging pipes, which are mostly memory-based in many implementations.

Philosophy

The reasons for avoiding SQL are as follows: # Complexity: Most commercial database products are often too costly for minor projects, and free databases are too complex. They also do not have the shell-level approach that NoSQL has. # Portability: ## Data: The data from NoSQL can be easily ported to other types of machines, like

Macintosh The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and ...

es or

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

computers, since tables exist as simple ASCII text and can be easily read from or redirected to files at any point in processing. ## Software: NoSQL can run on any UNIX machine that has the

Perl Perl is a family of two high-level, general-purpose, interpreted, dynamic programming languages. "Perl" refers to Perl 5, but from 2000 to 2019 it also referred to its redesigned "sister language", Perl 6, before the latter's name was offici ...

and the

AWK programming language AWK (''awk'') is a domain-specific language designed for text processing and typically used as a data extraction and reporting tool. Like sed and grep, it is a filter, and is a standard feature of most Unix-like operating systems. The AWK lang ...

s installed, and perhaps even on the

Cygwin Cygwin ( ) is a POSIX-compatible programming and runtime environment that runs natively on Microsoft Windows. Under Cygwin, source code designed for Unix-like operating systems may be compiled with minimal modification and executed. The Cygwin in ...

UNIX-like environment for

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

. # Unlimited: NoSQL has no arbitrary limits, like a data field size, column number, or file size limit, and can principally work where other products cannot. (The number of columns in a table may actually be limited to 32,768 by some implementations of the AWK1 programming language). # Usability: With its straight forward and logical concept, NoSQL can easily be used by non-computer people. For instance, rows of data are selected with the 'row' operator, columns with the 'column' operator. In contrast to other RDBMS, NoSQL has the full power of UNIX during application development and usage. Its user interface uses the UNIX shell. So, it is not necessary to learn a set of new commands to administer the database. From the view of NoSQL, the database is not more than a set of files similar to any other user file. No scripting or other type of database language is used besides the UNIX shell. This shell-nature encourages casual use of this database, which makes its use familiar, resulting in formal use. In other words, NoSQL is a set of shell routines that access normal files of the operating system.

Examples

To retrieve information about a particular employee, a query in SQL might look like this: select e.*, a.*, mgr.* from EMPLOYEES e, ADDRESSES a, MANAGERS mgr WHERE ..... Since a document-oriented NoSQL database often retrieves a pre-connected document representing the entire employee, the query might look like this: $e = doc("/employee/emp_1234") return $e/address/zip The stream-operator paradigm differs from conventional SQL, but since the NoSQL DB is relational, it is possible to map NoSQL operators to their SQL equivalents:

External links

NoSQL: a non-SQL RDBMS
Relational database management systems Free database management systems

Construction

Philosophy

Examples

See also

Further reading

External links